Rise of the Valeyard
by Rise of the Valeyard
Summary: The Twelfth Doctor is given a cryptic message from a Cyberman as he regenerates into a younger, smarter, & angrier Time Lord. With the help of a new companion, an old flame, and a family member long thought dead, will he finally understand the origin of one of his more mysterious enemies? How will he secure his own past happening? Rewrite
1. Chapter 1

**_A/N: Hello FanFiction, Yes I'm aware that I already tried telling this story. Key word here being TRIED. But I ran out of ideas the first time around/told it way too fast and didn't actually give enough detail, and this time I'm giving this story that I refuse to just lay by the wayside the actual time and treatment it properly deserves. Still hoping to come across somebody willing to do a poster._**

**_Anyway, here's the first chapter to the "redux" of Rise of the Valeyard._**

_**Enjoy.**_

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"_I know why they're coming after me._

_They have tried coming at me from every angle, _

_whether it's ending my life or harming the people that I love, _

_I'm always the target._

_But it's not my physical body they want._

_It's my mind._

_With my knowledge on how to defeat pretty much every known species in the God-forsaken universe, _

_I am a blueprint for destruction._

_With my experience in stopping every single foe I have ever faced, _

_I am the ultimate weapon._

_My only fear now is how long before they really succeed?_

_How long before I lose my humanity?_

_How long? Before I let him out?"_

Chapter 1

At least he didn't die alone.

He always hated when that happened. It made him wonder if that particular regeneration that he lived was even worth it if he didn't have anyone to share the end of it with.

It happened in the middle of his latest adventure, a little pit stop if you will, on the planet San Helios while it still held civilization. He had simply meant to pick up a spark plug replacement for the Anti-Grav motorcycle in the TARDIS when they showed up.

It had to be Cybermen.

The very thing that killed his first incarnation, and had the chance to kill nearly every single incarnation following.

The Twelfth Doctor was not planning to die at the hands of a God-forsaken Cyberman.

The capital city of San Helios was a fairly large city, comparable in size to that of Los Angeles, if he were to make a comparison to Earth, his adopted second home. There was a population of roughly 12 million residents of the capital city, ranging from all types of species. Enough variety that anybody who needed to get around inconspicuously could do so without drawing attention.

Four metallic men marched in perfect synchronization away from a skyscraper, approximately twenty stories high and a city block around. They were exiting from a driveway leading to an underground storage unit, as the building was a government center. Three halted after one hundred yards while the other turned around to face its comrades.

"You may depart back to the mothership. I will ensure the Doctor's arrival."

With the order, its subordinates pressed a signal on their left arm to activate a homing beacon. Seconds later, they vanished with a light as their mothership's teleportation system beamed all three of them off planet. The Cyberleader traced a scan for any beings with a dual-cardiovascular system and progressed towards a mechanic shop roughly three blocks away from the building it had departed from recently. As it paced to its destination, it reached into a compartment tucked in its left arm and pulled a special bullet to put in its right arm's blaster. Reaching the final block it held up a rectangular device that served as a trigger device for a weapon that was currently sitting in the basement of the government center.

Noticing it from inside a repair shop half a block away, the Doctor whipped out his sonic screwdriver and bolted out the door.

"Hey, you!" he shouted to no avail. By this point the Cyberman had reached to its device and pressed a large, red button in the middle of the trigger device.

The Doctor had to shield his eyes from the resulting implosion. A compression field encompassed around the building in a blue light, then crushed everything inside at a rate on par with the speed of sound. The Doctor stood completely flabbergasted, as he had not seen this kind of technology since the Time War. The Cyberman had already prepared for the Doctor's arrival, vanishing by the time the light had cleared. People who were around the area and had heard the implosion tried to rush toward the building only to find a solid block of metal 20x50x10 feet and a pool of blood cascading down the street.

In spite of all the chaos, The Doctor was not focused on the now crushed superstructure, but rather focusing on a distant figure. A lone Cyberman, which stood not 200 feet from the TARDIS. Slowly, he paced towards his beloved ship and her unexpected visitor.

_"___Why haven't they tried anything yet?" __he mumbled to himself, rather thinking out loud at the moment. __"What are they waiting for?"__

As he closed the distance between himself, the Cyberman, and the TARDIS, the TARDIS's doors were pulled open as a young, handsome, yet rough-looking man sauntered out into the parking lot where they all planted themselves, complete with laser rifle in hand. The Doctor failed to notice the gun as he called to his arch enemy, "What in the hell are you trying to prove with this?"

"It was necessary" responded the Cyberman in its usual monotone.

"Oh really", asked the Doctor sarcastically, "and do tell me how murder is at all necessary?"

"It was necessary to ensure we gave you our message."

"And what message is that?", the Doctor questioned, now with some confusion on his face.

"You will become the ultimate weapon. The ones you love will find you again, and you will become unstoppable. This will result in your own destruction, we are here to ensure you start down this path."

"How?" asked a now internally frightened Doctor.

"With this", within seconds the Cyberman's gun popped out of its arm and took aim at the Doctor's left heart and fired.

The Doctor didn't so much feel the initial pain of being shot, rather he felt the dragged out pain of bleeding out as he lay on the ground. His companion had taken the liberty of removing the Cyberman's head with his laser rifle one exact second after the shot had been fired, then rushed to the Doctor's aide. Throwing his left arm around him, he half walked-half dragged the dying Time Lord back to the little blue box.

"Just hold on there, Doctor. Let me get you to the med bay and I'll fix you right up" his companion's Scottish accent rang throughout the openness of the console room. The Doctor had lost focus on his friend and began to notice the golden hue show up on his skin.

"Benjamin, I need you to let me lean on the console."

"What in the bloody hell are you talking about" Benjamin replied. "You're dying for God's sake."

"This is something you'll understand soon enough when I'm done changing. To put it simply, I'm about to have a huge makeover done to me and I'd rather you not do anything stupid to try and change it, alright?"

Benjamin nodded hastily with tear ducts building up, and the Doctor put in coordinates for the Time Vortex, pulling the lever for dematerialization. As he felt the ship take off, the Doctor started to look around the console room of his beloved ship, in the roughly 100 years he had been alive in this form, he had learned to not mind the new, darker look to his ship to match his new (at the time), darker personality. But through a patient relationship with Clara and Danny, including an incident where he met this future self he would become, he learned what it took to lighten up and not be so damn frustrated all the time. He chuckled quietly to himself as he thought to himself, he hadn't needed that sort of therapy since the end of the Time War.

He found it so ironic that this would probably his least emotional, painful, or even significant death. He didn't die in some great battle, he didn't die sacrificing himself for a companion or a friend. Instead he died because the Cybermen wanted to make sure he'd regenerate, into what though was what had him worried.

As the light threatened to finally finish off this form, he looked at his companion one last time and said with a wink "Hopefully, this one sticks around for a while."

With that the explosion finally came as he crumpled onto his knees, screaming in agony for nearly a minute. The pain of every single cell replacing and his genetic code rewriting itself was anything but a laughing matter for the Doctor. Yet he found himself in the middle of a snigger as he heard a voice inside his head whisper "One More..."

While the re-writing process continued, images began to pop into his head. Some from his past, some from the present, some potentially from the future, he wasn't sure. But one by one he could recognize some of the images, one being Captain Jack, his friend he'd abandoned. Another being his Tenth self (wearing the blue suit for some reason as opposed to the usual brown he wore). His progenated daughter Jenny (though with a different hair color than he remembered her with), and finally a face he hoped he would never see again. A face he had last seen in Matrix on Gallifrey, after realizing he was his own future. __What was the connection to everybody else?__he thought.

The screaming resumed but this time he could start hearing the difference in how his voice sounded as the process finally came to an end. After a solid minute of laying on the ground he opened his eyes, looked up at Ben, stood upright, and smiled without showing teeth.

"Hel-lo" the new Doctor announced and froze, noticing his new voice and accent, sounding almost American if it was in Earth context.

"Doctor?" Benjamin, who had been staring at this new, strange man throughout the whole process, and had actually been paying attention when his Doctor had mentioned "change". He certainly looked different from his Doctor, yet this one was acting just like the last one. All happy and joyful one moment, then either dark and brooding or serious and upset the next. He knew which side it was when the Time Lord flashed his grin again.

"You're expecting someone else?"

Benjamin had to sit down in his chair to calm his nerves, his face still showing signs of pure shock. His friend, his best mate, had just gone and changed his face right in front of him. He had never once imagined something along these lines happening.

"Do you want me to try and explain this?" he said as he sat next to him, trying to lighten the mood.

"Get the hell away from me!" Benjamin jumped and looked at him with a mix of horror and surprise, "How did you pull that off? Hmm. How many other times have you had to explain yourself when you decide to up and change face?"

Now it was the Doctor who looked almost ashamed with surprise.

"Look, I know this isn't necessarily the way you wanted things to go down, but for me it's either I do this to stay alive or else I really would have died fourteen different times already."

Benjamin, now slightly more cool from getting his mini-tangent out, still looked peeved as he consciously took control of his breathing pattern, keeping it slow so he would level his mood out.

"Prove to me you're him."

"What?" asked the Doctor.

"Prove to me you're him" he repeated, "tell me something that only the Doctor would know."

"Well", the Gallifreyan responded, "First things first: I rescued you from a crash landing when you were being chased by Daleks in the Alpha Centauri system mid-thirty first century. You have three brothers, all younger, named Peter, Paul, and David. You don't tend to stick around in relationships, as they seem to bore you for the most part. If I wasn't the Doctor, how would I know that you keep -ahhhh!" The Time Lord tried moving towards the stair case as he was speaking but found that he was trying to walk up the downwards staircase as he tumbled over.

"Oww. Shit." The Doctor opened his eyes wide and covered his mouth after he let that cuss word slip.

If he wasn't still feeling just above being on edge, Benjamin would probably have snorted and chuckled at the Time Lord's mishap. However, he simply looked at him with a slight amount of surprise, given that he had never heard the Doctor curse quite to that level yet.

"Huh, apparently this me is gonna be quite colorful with his choice of words" the Doctor quietly mumbled to himself as he pulled himself off the floor.

"This you?" Benjamin asked, tone laced in sarcasm.

"Okay Benjamin, if you're willing to listen to me for just a few minutes, I'll explain everything. I promise."

As the Doctor and his companion stared each other down, Benjamin still looking angry and the Doctor looking like he might almost snap in any which way, Ben quietly backed off and whispered "Go on."

"Thank you. So little known fact about Time Lords: we're given twelve total regenerations. Meaning as that particular body begins to die, all the cells in said body begin the process of re-writing themselves and our genetic code becomes completely re-written, so we more or less become new people but with the memories and experience of our past lives. Now thanks to an incident on Trenzalore, I have a brand new set of regenerations. So, I'm technically on my fifteenth body, but I'm the Thirteenth Doctor."

"How does that work?" Benjamin stared confused at the last statement, "I thought the Doctor was the name you always had."

"It is" the Doctor nodded as he explained further, "however, when I was the Warrior who fought in the Time War, I believed that particular incarnation lost the right to be the Doctor. The other time was an aborted regeneration I performed back in my Eleventh life. I cheated death by healing myself then siphoning the energy into a hand I had lost in a sword fight. Not how I wanted a particular reunion to go down." Feeling quite nostalgic, the Doctor silently chuckled to himself and smiled.

"You lost a hand in a sword fight? What did you do, magically grow a new one?"

"Yeah, I won't bore you with the rest of the details. So in conclusion, the thing with regeneration is I'm the same exact man, just with a new face, that's all. Does that mean my personality is always likeable? Depends on who you ask. Have I finally made some sense?" His eyes pleaded to Benjamin for understanding.

"Yes, I get it Doctor but..." he casually walked closer to the Time Lord to get a better look at his new face and as he stood less than an arm's length away, he clenched his fist, closed his eyes, and made a full swing at the Doctor's left cheek.

Needless to say, gravity told the Doctor he had to fall over. The only thing baffling him was why had Benjamin hit him so damn hard?

"Okay, now I'm gonna say I'm sorry for hitting you. But why couldn't you have told me about this sooner?"

As the Doctor lay on the ground rubbing his very sore cheek, he simply gave Benjamin a blank stare, "To be fair, it's not like I ever plan on dying."

Benjamin offered him a hand up, which the Doctor hesitantly grabbed onto. As he pulled him up, he sized him up one more time while the Doctor asked his seemingly obligatory 'How do I look?'

"Honestly you look very young. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though."

"Well, that's a change of pace. But I suppose I should ask", he nearly froze as he stared Ben in the eye, "Do you want to go home?"

"I want to say yes Doctor, but I can't. I think you need me around and I'm gonna help you figure out what the hell that Cyberman meant by what he said." Benjamin surprisingly returned the Doctor's look with a half-smile.

__Ahh, yes... that little bit of I don't even know what to call it...__

"Well, I guess the joke's on the Cybermen, because everyone I love is either dead or out of reach. But I suppose we should at least try to figure out where they went after they pulled that little stunt." He walked over to the console and started tweaking knobs and levers to get things going and ready to jump after the Cybermen.

"You still got that spring loader and that spare gun?"

"You're asking to use one of my guns? You can't be serious." Benjamin could feel suspicion creep across his face. In the time he had spent with the Doctor, never before had his friend even once said anything about using his guns.

"Of course I'm serious" replied the Time Lord. "Frankly I stopped caring about guns a long time ago." Ever since River... No he'd dare not think about her now. The TARDIS however, seemed to have at least a different idea from his own because as soon as he pulled the lever, the TARDIS seemed to almost plummet into a free fall of sorts. This was made even worse by a burning sensation inside of the Doctor's mind and he screamed aloud in pain.

"Westy" he shouted, almost unnecessarily "I need you to pull the emergency brake. My mind is barely able to keep up with the TARDIS' flight trajectory. I have no idea where we're going."

"Wait a minute Doctor", Ben responded hanging on for dear life, "I thought you said that an emergency pullout of the Vortex could result in"

"JUST DO IT!"

Without any further encouragement from his seemingly dying (again) companion and friend, Benjamin went to the emergency brake underneath the console and pulled the lever, causing a similar state of free fall, but this time shortened and more controlled as they landed with a thud. As he sat up panting, he looked over to the body of the new Doctor. His eyes were shut, his body still, but his breathing remained constant.

__This could be worse__, he thought to himself. He decided to take advantage of this time to move the Doctor to the med bay and hook him up, because even if the TARDIS for some reason couldn't help him, his basic medic training he picked up over the years could come in handy should he have needed to give the Doctor any medical attention.

Upon checking the Doctor's vitals without computer assistance, he made his way back to his room and sat on his bed. He shed a tear for his fallen friend and said a quick prayer to the Goddess of his people. Ben attempted to get sleep of some kind, in spite of having no clue where he or the Doctor were, how long they were gonna be stuck, or if anything was gonna happen at all. As he finally managed to close his eyes and stay asleep, a dream overtook him and he could feel the liveliness of the dream. But aside from the feel of it, he could see things in said dream, and one of them was the Doctor. His Doctor.

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_**A/N: Please Review, and P.S. I did the math right. David Tennant may have been the Tenth Doctor, but if you include the War Doctor he was technically the Eleventh (and Twelfth as of Journey's End) incarnation of the Doctor.**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Hello FanFiction: Thank you for reading Chapter 1 and waiting patiently for my busy ass to finally upload Chapter 2 of the Rise of the Valeyard rewrite. This is the first chapter to actually be significantly different from the last draft, and honestly might be the last chapter to utilize material from the original draft.**_

_**Cheers and here we go,**_

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Chapter 2

For him, being unconscious had its benefits.

For starters, the fact that no one was there to annoy him or constantly want something from him felt nice. Always a plus in his mind's eye.

The notion of not needing to constantly move around or jump planet to planet through the Time Vortex was a nice thought.

Getting some well needed sleep as opposed to the lack of rest he had been trying to force himself into over the last twelve hundred years. To him, the idea of laying in a bed all night seemed more absurd than necessary. This was always the one thing that drove him nearly insane about his human companions. If he were awake, he would chuckle.

Speaking of companions though, his mind led him to worry about Benjamin. Sure, he had somewhat explained what it was his people did to preserve their life spans but he also had to take into consideration what regeneration was like for his friend. How it had made Clara feel like Chinny had truly died and she would never see him again, only seeing Eyebrows instead. Or how he felt when Romana died and she became the feisty blonde that he somewhat preferred to remember her as. It was like knowing a person their entire life then watching everything you know about them disappear into obscurity as a completely different person took their place.

The more he thought about past companions and their reactions to him regenerating, the more he questioned why he was even thinking about any of them to begin with. Could it have anything to do with that message from the Cybermen? Or that odd barrage of visions he saw as he regenerated?

None of it mattered though, he decided. He wasn't able to actually express his thoughts out loud, as he was unconscious. If that wasn't the case, he would be having a nice little chat with old Sexy and see if maybe she could give him any sort of hint as to what the connection between his friends of old and the message. After one attempt to reach out the Old Girl, his mind felt almost nothing and gave up. Even in his old age, he couldn't always secure his telepathic link despite more or less being bonded to his TARDIS. As his mind rested from trying again, the Doctor wondered what Benjamin was doing without him to help him out.

In another room on the TARDIS, Benjamin Westoff laid still. The term being used loosely however, as he found himself in a dream. The setting was San Helios, but not quite like how he remembered it. This was a desert wasteland that stretched on for miles and miles. The only thing even resembling another living being was the TARDIS and his Doctor. The one that had saved him. His old, grumpy friend. The Doctor stood with his back to Benjamin, observing the stillness of everything.

"Now this looks a little more like how I remember San Helios. Covered in sand with no civilization around. Just a barren desert that if George Lucas saw he would have a heart attack."

Benjamin snorted. Just another one of the Doctor's references to that one planet he enjoyed so much. Earth it was called. The Doctor turned his head but not his body as he attempted to make some form of eye contact with his companion.

"What do you think Westy? Are you angry that I don't look like this anymore?"

"You could say something like that", Ben replied. "I wish you had bothered to let me know that you had a backup fail-safe to keep your sorry arse alive. In fairness to me Doctor, do you realize how terrifying it was to hear you screaming like that? And furthermore, why the hell do you look like you did this morning? Why aren't you, well, not you?" The Doctor finally faced his friend fully and gave him full eye contact.

"And the truth finally comes out. I'm not actually the Doctor, Ben. I'm what you would call a psychic projection of the TARDIS mainframe. Think of me as like a voice interface. The Doctor brought one up at least once with you on board. I'm not here to try and haunt you or make you feel bad about what you had to witness today. I'm here to give you proper instructions on how to restore power to the ship. I can take care of everything else, but I need you to initiate the power charge."

Benjamin refocused himself on the "Not-Doctor" and gave him a nod. In his twenty-eight years of being alive, he had found himself repairing over seventy ships of all shapes and sizes. Surely he could fix the TARDIS with help from the sentient ship herself.

"What do I have to do?"

The first step was getting the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, which proved to be no problem picking up from a passed out Time Lord, though he did have to scavenge through his pockets for a solid two minutes before he felt the cylindrical tube-like object.

The next step was making his way underneath the Time Rotor and disassembling the Central Computer of the TARDIS. Following the pulling of the positive and negative charged power couplings, he used setting 398B2 on the Sonic to initiate an electrical impulse that resulted in a energy feedback loop, thus slowly bringing emergency power online and allowing main power to begin its nearly three day long recharge cycle. He had no idea why the re-charge would take so long, though worrying about it wouldn't have done them any favors anyway, as the TARDIS was stuck there, wherever there was, for at least another day, twenty three hours, and thirty-nine minutes. That was when they would finally be able to get back into the Time Vortex.

After repeating the electrical impulse to fifteen more sets of power couplings, he set about in his workspace to re-set the engines to Input Mode. This would release the energy that was in the reserve tanks and move them into main reservoir. They would need this for the necessary moves needed for moving around their destination should they have needed to as well as getting back into the Time Vortex when the time came.

The next step was making sure that the emergency power would last while main power charged. He carefully placed his hand on the switch for the Auxillary Power Control and turned it to the right, initiating a quick flicker of lights in the console room, followed by a sudden brightness of lights all over the room. Ben smiled to himself as the ship seemed to be thanking him for restoring the power.

He slowly ducked back under the console and one by one, pulled apart his power coupling charges and quickly re-inserted them into the Central Computer, going in reverse order of which he pulled them apart, as to not kill power immediately. After pulling and re-inserting all 16 pairs of couplings, he hoisted himself back onto the main floor of the console room and hurried to the medical bay.

The Doctor felt like sleep was almost doing more harm than good. It gave him too much time beyond his comfort level to think about his past. He had always been a runner. The man who ran away and never looked back, ever since looking into the Untempered Schism. Sure, it led to many years of regrets that would haunt him but to him it was much better than the alternative of actually facing up to any of his past ghosts.

Could he really bring himself to visit Amy and Rory and ultimately save them from their fate in America? Could he have found a way to have saved Adric instead of letting him die nearly in vain? All of these questions and more threatened to consume his mind in near darkness as he failed miserably to fill his thoughts with something a little more bright and brilliant.

The first place he found himself was the night that everybody lived with Rose, Captain Jack, and the Nanogenes. After the horror of nearly being killed in an air raid in Nineteen Forties London, there were, of course, zombie-like people as a result of the then con man's dangerous thinking that Chula technology and humans wouldn't mix. Much to the Doctor's surprise (and everyone else's), all of those who had been affected by the Nanogenes were restored. In the days before the siege of Trenzalore especially, it was a rarity that he had days like that one.

Next he began to remember the incident on Messaline with Jenny, his Generated Anomaly; not that he had any chances to prove himself as a father to the young girl, as she had died in his arms taking a bullet that was meant for him. What sort of life he would have had lead if she had not died there. Trying to recreate the one adventure he thought he could never have, but knowing that she had the potential to be ten times the Time Lord he ever was. Now all he could think about that day was _"Just another one of Sandshoes's blunders"_.

Even in his early days of TARDIS travel with Arkytior, he proved all too quickly that he was not a family man. He couldn't bring himself to make her give up the hope of a new life with David after the Dalek invasion in the mid Twenty-Second Century. Selfishly, he never went back to see how she was doing, or if she even wanted to actually stay there. He could almost understand when Martha had left and he never went to see her again post-regeneration or how (he told himself even after regenerating) he could never see Donna again, but this was his own family. His own granddaughter left behind like he had left behind so many others after her.

As the Doctor began the final process of his recovery, Benjamin Westoff approached the Time Lord's bed in the medical bay. Upon restoring the power in the TARDIS, he had practically rushed to his friend's side to see if the computer could tell him how he was doing. Ben had received some basic medical training growing up on Sto, however he was still unfamiliar with the Doctor's Time Lord anatomy. After running three scans on his body with the sonic screwdriver, the monitor analyzed that nothing was wrong with the Time Lord. He just needed time to restore and gain consciousness again. Benjamin started to head back to his room to clean up and get some rest but he heard a slight groan and turned around.

"Doctor!" Ben shouted as he pulled out the sonic. "Come on old girl, he can't do this on his own! Help him!"

Slowly, the Doctor could feel consciousness returning to him. The TARDIS had reached out herself and started to fill his telepathic sense with her own self. The rest of his senses began firing up as he struggled to open up his eyes. What sounded like someone saying his name from a far and impossible distance sounded closer, almost too close for his personal comfort. As his senses continued to recharge him, he felt more and more aware of his surroundings until he jolted awake with a scream. He took one look at Benjamin, then one look at himself to realize he was still in his same clothes, but he looked so much younger just from his hands alone. He ran his hand through his now longer and clearly not grey hair and felt beads of sweat now running off of his face.

"Oh. Shit." he panted under his breath. _That was darkly ominous_, he thought to himself. His forced breathing continued as he looked to his companion. "Ben, how long have I been out?"

"Roughly twenty hours. I'm surprised you're already awake, although if I may suggest, you should probably get cleaned up if you're okay. You are okay, right Doctor?"

The Doctor calmed down and didn't make his breathing audible. He made one move over the bed and placed one foot on the ground. After pushing himself up and taking one step, he nodded to his companion. After Ben smiled and stepped out of the room, the Doctor remained standing, still somewhat burdened by his thoughts from before.

"What do you think it means Old Girl?" His response was a series of turquoise and magenta lights in a back and forth pattern. "I guess you're right. Last me was all 'I've made many mistakes' but never did anything about it. Maybe it's time I really fixed that." He proceeded towards the console room. "But I can't go back and fix literally every problem, it doesn't work like that. How am I supposed to save River? How would I get the meta-crisis out of Donna's head? Whoa..."

Memory after memory of his previous adventures flooded back into his consciousness, like a lock had just been picked inside his mind. He now realized what Chinny had actually done with all of his old memories he had supposedly forgotten. He had never forgotten at all, just stored them away because for him they hurt too much at the time. Or maybe all the knowledge from the past was too much for that particular incarnation. Whatever it was, the Doctor was retaining everything and he wasn't having a problem with it. In fact, it felt more refreshing to get all of his old memories back. A new level of intelligence that he hadn't quite felt before. With this, he stopped as a realization came to him.

"Alright Sexy, you win." He smiled sadly as he almost felt a tear take him over. "Maybe it is time I finally patch things up with who I can, maybe figure out this Cybermen killing me thing along the way." As he stated his last bit, the TARDIS sent wave after wave of comfort and support to him, turning his sad smile into a more genuinely happy smile.

"Thanks Old Girl." With that he, turned around to head towards his room to clean up and find a more suitable attire in the wardrobe.


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, my God it's been forever since I updated Rise of the Valeyard. I must confess this is mostly because I've been fixing some things in my life that actually needed fixing and took precedent over my story. Now that I have those things out of the way, I can finally start refocusing my time and energy on completing my tale. I'm glad to have gotten the feedback and favorites on She Always Knew but I am making clear right now that She Always Knew is no way related to Rise of the Valeyard, outside of me using the Doctor from this story. That bit of housekeeping aside, back to this story.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 3

Finding a new look wasn't going to be easy, he knew that for certain.

He didn't want the obviously odd choices of his past three regenerations, or his first nine for that matter.

Something along his first post-Time War body was more of what he had in mind, even going so far as to break out the leather jacket and see if it would still fit. It did surprisingly, but it didn't seem like his style this time around, not without something different underneath at least.

His eyes caught the attention of a long sleeve purple button-up and a black vest right next to each other. He thrust the shirt/vest combination on himself and found it surprisingly pleasing in the vanity. He hurried on a pair of gray-black jeans, black dress shoes, and choosing an old leather jacket he had picked up on Earth in the Nineteen Fifties, he stared every inch of his new body and look. He couldn't but admire this new, almost normal look to him.

Even his hair felt more like a call back to his younger days. Rather than his Sixth body's curls or the floppy style of Chinny, his hair was more relaxed and easier to manipulate. After running his head through his hair three times, he finally settled on his look. Admiring himself in the vanity was one thing, but if he kept this up, he'd almost swear this him really was in love with himself.

Ben was right, he did look young, especially without any obvious facial hair. Not that he grew facial hair in his past (intentionally), but while he was out he was worried he would pull a Master and suddenly wind up with a beard to make him look evil. He smiled at the ridiculous thought, chuckled, and proceeded back to the console room where Ben stood at the Time Rotor. His companion gave him a once over, then a couple more to really see the new look and nodded his head in approval.

"Well Ben, what do you think?" Benjamin looked at his fashion choice again, then back at his hair and gave his friend one last glance over.

"Here's my honest opinion mate. Do you always have to look like a hero of some fictional legend?" The Doctor snorted.

"I'll have you know Benjamin, throughout the universe, I am the Stuff of Legends."

"And you even have an ego to match it."

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." With that, the Doctor proceeded to initiate the dematerialization process. Setting a course for Benjamin's home planet of Sto, he pulled the lever down and back up but nothing happened. He tried pulling the lever three more times and still nothing was happening. This situation began making less and less sense to the Time Lord.

"You might as well stop trying, Doctor. We're still stuck here dead in the water for at least another day." The Doctor was about to ask the obvious response, but Ben cut him off. "And before you ask how we still have basic power, I was able to take the Central Computer apart and restore primary non-flight systems. The only problem we have right now is no Time Vortex to jump through. Yet. I haven't checked out where we are but that's what I've got you for."

The Doctor did his best to hide his shock, but Ben could see his eyes. Sure he had helped the Time Lord with the odd bit of maintenance here and there, but with most of those situations, he was the guy who would go get something as opposed to actually learning how to fix a sentient ship.

Almost defeated after realizing that Ben was right, the Doctor sighed as he moved towards the doors of his beloved ship. _This couldn't get much worse,_ he thought to himself. Benjamin grabbed his handgun as he snuck up behind the Time Lord. With a glance to his companion, the Doctor opened the door and stepped outside the safety of his little blue box.

He felt the ground beneath his feet and noticed it had a familiar feel to it. Earth. He knew that somehow he was on Earth. _Well at least I'm stuck somewhere I can call someone up to help me fix the TARDIS._ In fact, it seemed to be even more familiar as he started walking away from the TARDIS. After twenty yards due south of the TARDIS's position, he looked around to see if anything looked recognizable as far as landmarks or any indication of civilization.

Roughly a quarter mile due west, he noticed a surprisingly large mansion, but didn't think much of it and didn't feel it necessary to intrude on whoever it was that lived there. Instead, he and Benjamin made way for a gravel road and followed it, coming up with an alibi of having a car break down and needing a ride to the nearest city.

Benjamin felt almost bored doing all of this walking around, so to pass the time he started an old war march song he learned back on Sto. The Doctor quickly joined in on a harmony line as the two friends continued the song. The moment was short lived as a conversation involving just what the hell was happening seemed more and more inevitable.

"So this is your beloved Earth, eh Doctor? Why do you spend so much time if there's nothing around?" The Time Lord snorted as he almost found Benjamin's ignorance insightful. He did wonder to himself why he spent so much time on Earth. Mostly because of his companions wanting to see their families, or his job at UNIT back in his Third life.

"Ah Benjamin, we're in the beautiful countryside of... wherever we are. I think we're in Europe. With my luck we're in the UK, I'll have to wait until we actually see a town before I'm sure though. If you want fun, I can take you to a city and you can have yourself a ball." At that exact moment, the Doctor had realized that he had never taken Ben to see his second home of planet Earth. _Maybe after we get the TARDIS up and running, I can show him something fun like Las Vegas. _He chuckled inwardly at the thought of him and his companion running around Sin City, probably saving the world while Ben gets caught up in all the shows and gambling and whatnot.

After twenty minutes of a nice, even pace along the countryside road a large, all black SUV came into view behind them slowing down. Benjamin could not have felt more relieved to finally see another human being. As the vehicle pulled up beside them, a middle-aged baritone voice rang out.

"You boys need a lift?"

"Sure." Benjamin replied. "Just to a mechanic shop if you don't mind." With that, the elderly man (whom the Doctor figured had to be in his late fifties/early sixties) waved them over and unlocked the doors. The Doctor sat behind the driver while Ben placed himself behind the man's son (or grandson, neither of them could figure it out). He was a young boy who couldn't have been older than ten.

"So you two was stuck, eh?" The young boy asked. The Doctor smiled at the boy's grammar mess-up.

"Something like that. Our car broke down after we got lost and lucky for us, you two came at a good time."

"How come your car broke down?" The elder man slightly scowled at the boy.

"Tony, that's enough questions for now."

"Yes, Daddy" Tony muttered. The Doctor was about to defend the boy, but Benjamin beat him to the punch.

"Oh, that's quite alright. I think we just got lazy and didn't take proper care of it. So learn a good lesson from us, young one. Always take care of everything you want to hold on to, eh mate?" Ben smiled and Tony reciprocated his smile and gave a nod of understanding.

Any other attempts at small talk were quickly put to rest as the Doctor dozed off for a few minutes. _Why am I feeling so tired now? I thought twelve hours was more than enough rest. I guess I am getting old after all._ He had to figure that maybe the regeneration took so much out of him that one time resting was not enough to keep up with the demands this new body was making him endure.

Benjamin on the other hand was simply taking in the view of what lay ahead of him and too focused to actually engage in a conversation with either the boy or his father. He saw a beautiful city, complete with architecture that had to span over centuries, an amazing view of a river flowing throughout and very sleek looking airships in the skies above them. A planet that had both convenient land, sea, and air travel and the Doctor didn't bother to tell him about it. This would certainly make for some interesting sightseeing of another "civilized" planet, despite being a level five and no warp capability.

Ten minutes later they pulled up to a decently crowded repair shop as the Doctor had awakened. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he and Ben stepped out of the vehicle and thanked the driver and his son for the trip. As they began to make it look like they were heading towards the shop, the driver shouted "Hey!" while the Time Lord approached the window again. He now finally saw their driver a little more closely and almost recognized him, but wasn't sure if he could put a name to him.

"Get some coffee and don't worry, these blokes know how to fix cars. If you want a little discount, just tell them Pete Tyler sent you." With his parting words, he gave a smile as he rolled up the window and made his way out of the parking lot.

"Right" the Doctor scoffed to himself. "Just tell them Pete Tyler..." All of a sudden, he felt himself shake with shock, horror, and slight amusement. "What?!"

He began to check the skies to make sure he had actually heard 'Pete Tyler' right. He sprinted as fast as he could to wherever was a more open view of the city, this case being a park two blocks away. People of all ages were either out in couples, with pets or children, or too focused on themselves to see some random Time Lord running into the center of it, with a slightly oddly dressed man behind him. After forty yards, the Doctor stopped suddenly to check the skies again and sure enough, air ships known as zeppelins were clear throughout the city skyline. He collapsed on his back and ran his hand through his hair as Benjamin finally caught up to him.

"Doctor, what the hell was that all about?" Benjamin rasped out, having had to sprint more than normally just to keep up with his alien friend. The Doctor, clearly in panic mode still, almost didn't even feel a need to respond to his companion. After nearly a minute of breathing through his mouth erratically, he calmed down enough to speak.

"Now this is hardly fair."

He couldn't comprehend how it was possible. Every single breach that he knew about between this world and his were sealed off permanently, at least according to him, not that he would have bothered to give it a thorough check. Benjamin was still confused as to what he had just witnessed and demanded more answers.

"Doctor, where are we?" He got one glance from the Time Lord, then finally an answer he could understand.

"It's a long story." Benjamin slowly helped his friend up, who was clearly still in shock.

"Alright mate, I'm going to get you some water, you're going to sit down, and you're going to tell me everything that I need to know if we're going to get out of this with our sanity intact, alright?"

The Doctor stared out into nothing. How he even managed to comprehend how well Benjamin was taking care of the situation was beyond him. After re-focusing hinself on his companion, the Doctor made eye contact as he processed the words spoken to him. As for an answer, he gave Ben a short series of nods. Ben half-smiled and made his way towards a park vendor. The Doctor, meanwhile, continued to ponder not only the improbability of the current situation, but also the meaning of it.

_Of all the places I had to wind up, why here?_


	4. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, I seem to be getting back into the swing of things again with this story and now it's finally picking up and going where I want it to go. Granted, I wish I had gotten this right the first time, but that's the beauty of trial and error. Anyway, time to meet another Pete's World member as we prep for some fun.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 4

He had somehow died, and this was either his blessing or his punishment.

To him, how else could he have possibly explained returning to Pete's World, right after a regeneration, and have a clean slate with the world around him? As a method of making sure he had in fact not died, he lightly hit himself in the chest and began a short coughing fit.

As realization he was still alive took hold of him, he closed his eyes as memories played in flashes throughout his conscious mind.

Cybermen that ran amuck in an attempt to gain complete control over both this parallel and his home universe. The factory where innocent people were led by the hundreds to their doom of conversion, including this universe's Jackie Tyler. John Lumic with his nearly sadistic attempt at living forever which led to the creation of the Cybermen in this parallel. As if these weren't enough to overtake him, his mind led him back to the lever room in Canary Wharf and that Rassilon-forsaken beach. Both times.

Then a beautiful face with blonde hair and that cute tongue in teeth smile that she kept special just for him threatened a tear to drop down his face. All those times that he could have given himself happiness with her for her definition of forever, and he had tossed her aside as soon as she had found her way back to him. The fact that he had thrown Martha under the bus accidentally because of his inability to move on at the time only proved further how wrong he was. And how twelve hundred years later, he never forgave himself for never saying those three words that she wanted to hear, and he wanted to tell.

Benjamin Westoff returned with a bottle of water for himself and the Doctor with an almost smug look on his face. The Doctor tried to put on a brave face as he thought about how to recall this interesting part of his past, as his companion had rarely seen him convey any form of emotion in that body. Explaining his past with Rose Tyler to Benjamin was surprisingly easier than he had initially anticipated. Ben's reaction was slightly more than expected.

"So let me get this straight, mate... You, Mr. High-And-Mighty Time Lord, fell in love with a girl. Dumped her here with a Meta-Clone-Cris-Shit-Thing you grew from your hand that wiped out a whole bunch of Daleks. And you expect to not try and patch things up with her? Pardon my asking mate, but what the bloody hell is wrong with you?"

"Westy, there are certain things that if you would understand-"

"I understand plenty of your situation Doctor" Ben cut in. "What I fail to comprehend is your mindset about this. Why would you run away from a next-to-impossible chance to fix a mistake from your past, which you have admitted was a mistake, and give yourself closure with your ex?"

"She's not..." He didn't want to admit it, but the Doctor knew that Ben had a valid point. "Okay, that's one way of phrasing it I guess, but what difference will it make? I'll probably get some speech about how she hated me for turning her away, even though I'm sure by now they have five kids and a nice house."

Benjamin chuckled at his friend's rather quick response, then kept the smile on his face as he continued to read the Doctor's face like a holographic projection.

"You want to know why it will make a difference? Here's why. It will finally cleanse you of your guilt towards her. Doctor, you've made it clear as day that you loved Rose, and possibly still carry some of that love, but you've replaced it with this odd guilt that seems to be eating you alive. I saw that same look on your face when you woke up on the TARDIS. You looked almost ashamed to see me after your regener-whatever because you knew I would never see the Doctor that I personally knew again. In short, all I'm trying to say is you should take advantage of the fact that you've changed face and just talk to her. You owe her and you owe yourself that much."

The Doctor almost stopped thinking as he took his friend's words in. It was one of the many things that completely fascinated him about his human companions. They almost always knew exactly what to say.

"Have you always been this wise, Westy?" Benjamin only smiled.

"Only toward those who actually need it. And toward Time Lords who think they know everything."

Both of them shared a chuckle as the Doctor pondered on what to do now. Yes, he was convinced that while he was stuck in the parallel, he would find his Meta-Crisis and Rose and try to fix what he could between them and himself. Finding a nearby newspaper, he saw the date and couldn't help but almost laugh from coincidence. Naturally, it was her birthday and since she was living here with her family, chances are Jackie would host some lavish celebration of her daughter's thirtieth. The only question on the Doctor's mind was how to break in. The answer came more easily to him than even he might have thought.

After a cab ride back to the same general area where the TARDIS had landed, the Doctor and Benjamin both decided to crash the party using the Doctor's psychic paper. Benjamin studied Earth fashion for an hour in the library before going down to the wardrobe to change into his "suit". The Time Lord, however set to work on maintenance in his ship when she made it clear that he needed to change as well; she even went so far as to break out the "Tux of Doom" as he came to dub it and put it in the console room.

"Okay, old girl, that's just being mean if you expect me to wear that and not have a complete disaster happen."

To him, that was basic fact. He had worn that same tuxedo when he and Rose were here the first time and they had a disaster in the form of Cybermen. Then the incident on board the Titanic in the tux and most of the people on the ship died and Earth was nearly destoryed (again). Followed up by the fact that River Song nearly killed him right in the middle of Nazi Germany and at one point he was dying in that same tux. Yet, he figured that since it was already going to be a disaster in some way for him, why the hell not put it on.

Twenty minutes passed and Benjamin finally came out of the wardrobe. The Doctor put on a face of slight surprise to see how quickly Ben caught on to etiquette of the rich and famous, even if he did overdo it a bit. He wore a simple black and white tuxedo, but outdid himself with a long black trench coat, white shoes, a trilby, and a monocle. The Doctor walked over to his friend and pulled the hat off of his head and the monocle and told him to lose the jacket. Otherwise he looked well enough to avoid drawing attention to them and the two proceeded out of the TARDIS doors.

From their position, they could see the cars line up waiting to get in. The outdoor lights were on, revealing a small checkpoint with security. Chances are if this was in fact a party for Rose, then the Meta-Crisis would have told security all of his old tricks for getting into places like this. He was almost ready to give up hope when he noticed somebody standing outside the back of the house by themselves. It was a male, he deduced and he and Benjamin quickly made their move.

As they closed the distance between them to speaking range, the Doctor was hoping that this stranger would just open up a door and then he and Benjamin would just sneak in to the party. However, as they came closer the man's hair started to look kind of familiar. Before the Doctor could fully figure out it was his clone and turn around he heard a voice, "Who are you?" and faced his clone. The Doctor turned to his companion then back to the Meta-Crisis.

"Benjamin, stay here and give us a moment, alright?"

As the Doctor finished strolling up to the Meta-Crisis, he took a moment to truly observe what had happened since he last saw him. Facially, he had not aged a second in the six year time span he had been here (a feature that incarnation wished he had achieved in his five year life span) while his hair on the other hand started to show signs of grey. It was moments like this that made the Doctor glad he wasn't this incarnation anymore. How his clone was putting up with his vanity issues was completely beyond the Time Lord. All joking aside, the Meta-Crisis was starting to get frustrated with a lack of answers.

"Oi mate, you mind not staring at me and answer my question. Who the hell are you?" The Doctor noticed one final thing about his clone and that was the fact he was still a complete bean pole. He recalled that incarnation being able to have eaten anything he wanted and having the metabolism to stay rather skinny.

"I'm sorry. I guess I just kind of forgot I was that skinny back when I was you."

The Doctor's clone forgot to breathe for a second as he felt his eyes bulge almost out of the sockets. His shock settled for a second then he beamed at the Time Lord.

"Spaceman." Both Doctors smiled in fondness of Donna's nickname. "Alright, I don't care how you got back. I might ask you why I look like a Uni student, but I do know that between Rose and myself, I'm not sure who is or will be more happy to see you. Oh, by the way, where is she?"

"The TARDIS?"

"Of course dumbo, I know where Rose is, she's on her way here. So where is the Old Girl?"

"She's about a quarter mile due east from here. Hold on." He started walking towards Ben then waved him over to them. Benjamin quickly joined them. "Benjamin Westoff, meet my right hand, literally." The Meta-Crisis rolled his eyes as he shook hands with the new companion.

"Doctor Jonathan Theta Noble, if you don't mind." The Doctor found it touching that his ("brother" or would he be his "son" or whatever) clone in spite of taking his usual go to alias of John, took his nickname from the Academy as well as Donna's last name as he was a mixture of their DNA. Back to the subject at hand for the Time Lord though.

"So where is she? Rose, I mean."

"She's currently on her way from work thinking it's just gonna be a quiet dinner with the family and my family. I told the wife to bring the kids after Rose gets here."

"What?" The Doctor's positive demeanor suddenly shifted to nearly being livid. How did the Meta-Crisis and Rose not settle down, get married and have kids or whatever it was that humans did. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh", John replied just getting the hint that the Doctor had no idea what had actually occurred since the beach. "About Rose and myself, it didn't work out. I mean we tried to actually have something but it wasn't the same, for either of us really. From our failing relationship, I came to the realization of two things: 1. She could only see me as me and not as you. Looking back on that, I can't blame her for eventually getting frustrated with pretending that I was you. 2. I needed to be my own person. Sure I'll always have nine hundred and nine years' worth of memories stashed away in the old noggin but I can't be you. I'm a human. She wanted the Time Lord, and as much as I wanted her in my life and still value her as a friend, I knew she needed to be with the man that she loves." The Doctor had to take his clone's words in carefully as to avoid punching him for not doing the only thing he actually had to do in his exile to this parallel.

"I can tell you're mad but listen close. I'm only gonna ask this once and if you refuse again, I will have to hurt you. Take Rose with you when you leave. She is just shy of being completely miserable living here. She was not meant for the limelight in the high life with her posh Torchwood job. She wants the stars and the man that by all means, she should completely hate, but still loves to no end. So on her behalf, if I can get you two a moment alone, ask her to come back with you when you leave."

"You might as well Doctor." Benjamin knew it almost wasn't his place to budge in on the conversation, but he had his own two cents to throw in as well. "From what you've told me about her, she sounds like a hell of a woman and just the kind to keep you in line. Who knows how she can help with our Cyberman prophecy."

The Doctor's gaze bounced between his friend and his clone. He knew they were probably right, and at the very least it would be step one to him gaining redemption with Rose. And if he could manage to fix things with her, what would stop him from going and fixing things with all of the people from his past. Maybe, just maybe, she could even help him find Gallifrey again. All things considered, he looked towards the two and nodded and spoke softly.

"Alright, let's bring her home."

"JOHN!" a shrill voice cried out. The Doctor froze as he recognized both it and the person that was nearly sprinting towards them. Jackie Tyler looked very lovely in her sliver sparkling dress, but clearly it had to be an urgent matter if she was running with her shoes still on. "I just got a call from Pete. There's been an attack at Torchwood. Cybermen."

That last part rang sour for both the Doctor and Benjamin. John held her while she held a clearly worried look on her face. The Time Lord pulled her aside without bother at revealing who he was directly. Reintroductions and formalities be damned, Rose and Pete's lives were on the line here and if he could help it, he was gonna save both of them. Revenge for his last life also seemed tempting, but he pushed those thoughts aside.

"Jackie, look at me. Yes I'm back, yes I changed my face again. No, I don't need to hear your opinion on it yet. What you do need to hear from me is that I am so sorry for hurting her and you as well. I promise you though, I will not allow anything bad to happen to her again, I swear." He let her go as he felt a tear trickle down the side of his face from the guilt of having to see Jackie in another situation like this. "Come on Ben! John, get your car running!" Both of the other men quickly followed suit, with the latter receiving a kiss from Jackie on the cheek for good luck. As the three took off without another goodbye of any sort, Jackie finally started to realize what that third guy was even talking about.

"Doctor?"


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, I'm here with another chapter. I seem to actually be back in the swing of things and man, does it feel great. Anyway, I don't have anything clever to say before this chapter, so let's dive right in.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 5

Hatred was never his strength, but he always made exceptions.

Inside his beating hearts was a sliver of hatred he had building up from all of his lives. Whether it was all of the times he had lost people he cared about to dangers of the universe, or when his own incompetence had led him to make bad decisions, all of the negative energy he had channeled through sadness and remorse was beginning to make him angry. It wouldn't mean anything if it didn't almost feel good. Inside, he just shook it off as some kind of adrenaline rush from a combination of possible revenge on the Cybermen for killing him (even if they weren't **his** universe's Cybemen) or the chance to see Rose Tyler again and work alongside her.

Speaking of, he thought back on what the Meta-Crisis had told him earlier. It almost felt like there was another reason that things between him and Rose didn't work out, and John was holding something to himself. Understandably so, as his relationship to Rose wasn't exactly his business unless they openly told him what they felt he was allowed to know.

As the three men continued to race towards Canary Wharf, the Doctor felt a sudden need to seek the answers to the questions still in his mind. John, on the other hand, seemed to almost feel a need to calm the Doctor down. Maybe some humor would lighten him up.

"So if you don't mind my asking, why do you sound like an American now?" The Time Lord was unfortunately not exactly in the mood for a joke as John's attempt to cool him off was quickly redirected to his questions.

"Why didn't it work between you two?" he spoke softly as he continued to calm his hyperactive mind. "And I want the real answer. I'm not saying what you told me wasn't true, but there's something you're keeping from me and I am not in any mood to play games."

John could see through the Doctor's vacant expression. Despite a clearly obvious difference in age, he recognized Big Ears' temper from a mile away. What concerned him though was how subtle his counterpart hid the fury that was directed at the Cybermen situation.

"Before I answer that, I have a counter question that I have been asking myself ever since we were left here. Why didn't you make sure you actually got rid of Bad Wolf from Rose?" The Doctor nearly took offense to that question, when his clone knew the answer.

"Aside from the fact that I was a little worried about regenerating at the time, I took it out of her. What else was I supposed to do?" John darkly chuckled as he focused on passing a vehicle.

"You know, you really are an idiot if you don't mind my saying." The Doctor glared at John, who smugly returned his stare before continuing. "I mean in that whole year following Bad Wolf, did you honestly not once think about testing Rose just to make sure there were no side effects of any kind? In all the time you had with her, were you truly able to convince yourself that magically she was able to withstand the use of the Time Vortex as long as she did while you regenerated after taking it in for mere seconds? Let me finish where I'm going with this before you freak the hell out."

John expected the Time Lord to have some kind of overreaction. In fairness, the Doctor wanted to just dash out of the vehicle, teleport Benjamin back on the TARDIS, and wait it out until they could take off again. However, due to the damage that would cause not only to the multiverse as he knew it, it would completely destroy John's trust for this new body. Granted, he didn't like that John was short of berating him for his mistakes when he was finally even acknowledging said mistakes. Yet he found that he needed to listen to his clone's honesty. He held his tongue in respect as John continued his tangent.

"After weeks of conducting all kinds of tests, what we found was her DNA contained traces of Huon energy. But rather than it running the risk of killing her, it had absorbed into her body and began altering her at a molecular level. I know what you're thinking. 'Why would I go through all of this trouble?' Because I want the two of you to be happy. This is for the record by the way. She will age eventually; and she could still die from something like a bullet to the head, so the danger factor will always be there. This does not mean, however, that you every right to leave her on the sidelines while you just gallivant your martyr-like ass into trouble. She has been through emotional hell and I can tell that you two need something better for the both of you. So can you put aside your usual angst and just let yourself be happy?"

The Doctor found the last question especially hard to come up with an answer for. He could have tried to pretend that he would mean it if he said yes, but he had to think about what this could mean for his future. Every time he had tried to find some form of happiness in his life, something always got in the way. For a man who constantly dismissed the idea of domestics, the Doctor mentally chuckled at his own hypocrisy. He finally faced his clone and for the first time since getting in the car, he put on a smile.

"I'm not sure if I can promise all of that, but I will say this. It's about time I made good on her promise to me."

Both Doctors shared a smile as Benjamin sat behind them with an equally sized grin. He noticed a small black case on the floor next to him and moved to pick it up.

"Hey John" he said as the Meta-Crisis quickly turned to face him. "What's this you got here?"

"That is an experimental type of ammunition I've been working on. I've taken four different electrical conducting agents and massed enough energy to fry a small town's power supply and put them into eight bullets. Each bullet is unique as it gives off either the positive or negative reaction from the conducting agent. Why do you ask?"

Benjamin smirked as he finally saw the skyscraper he assumed was Torchwood HQ. The Doctor shivered momentarily, then looked back at his companion.

"You still got the sleeve, right Westy?" His friend nodded his response as he quietly assembled the launcher and attached the small gun to the end of the spring.

"I'm almost terrified to ask when you started to use guns." John muttered as he parked the car at the main entrance.

"As of this past regeneration" was the only reply the Doctor was willing to give as he opened his door. Once he stepped out, he took off his leather jacket. Placing it in the car seat next to John's not-so-well hidden gun, he quietly placed the sleeve launcher on his forearm. After pushing his arm forward to trigger the release and catching the sidearm in his hand, he placed the gun back in place and put his jacket back on to cover it, sneaking his clone's pistol. John, meanwhile, opened the trunk to reveal a small rifle hidden in a compartment, and gave it to Benjamin as he placed all eight bullets inside of the loading chamber.

All three men made their way through the front door as Torchwood agents tried to hold them back, but John held up a badge, granting them special clearance. Pete Tyler approached them quickly with a look of confusion on his face.

"John, thank God you're here. And why are you two with him?"

"I'll explain later. Where's Rose?" His demeanor changed back to one of slight frustration as they all headed towards the emergency stairwell.

"She found on the surveillance that one of them is still in the building on the top floor. I tried to tell her no, but she loves to prove she is even more stubborn than her mother. We've just located the other three on floor seventeen and are about to make our move."

"Good." With that, Benjamin and the Doctor took off running up the flight of stairs, each with their own objective already figured out between them.

"Doctor!" John shouted at the pair as they continued past the third floor. "Sure you don't need back up?"

"Not on your life John!" Ben retorted back down at them. He quietly muttered to himself "This time it's personal."

A full minute later put the Doctor and Ben at floor seventeen. They both stopped for a second as they stared at each other. Ben knew that he had to do this alone, as did the Doctor for meeting up with Rose. With a final nod to his friend, Ben opened the emergency hatch and unlocked the door as the Doctor said "Good luck" with a two finger salute then proceeded up the stairs.

Benjamin proceeded into the main offices with caution. Both hands on his rifle and his head remained straight, but his eyes darted throughout the room. He knew by the time he had entered the room nothing else mattered except the safety of the public at large. That was one lesson his Doctor had taught him time and again: always put others before yourself when dealing with danger. He could almost feel his old friend walking alongside him as he crouched behind a desk as he heard a door open across the office.

The three Cybermen walked in a single file line to hide their numbers from whoever was their opposition. They halted after ten steps and Benjamin could hear a beeping sound, clearly some kind of scanner.

"Scans indicate one lifeform in the room. Come out and surrender. You will be upgraded or face being deleted. The choice is yours."

Benjamin had just about had enough to do with Cybermen for one week. Eyeing a pile of papers, he grabbed them close with one hand as he placed his other on the handle and trigger of John's rifle. He picked the one on the left as his first target.

"Eat lead, Clankers!" he cried out as he tossed the papers into the air, scattering them to buy him some time. One of the Cybermen began firing at the diversion as he moved out from behind the desk, aimed quickly at the Cyberman's mid-section and opened fire. The blast was enough to shut it down permanently as it fell over backwards with a thud. The other two quickly opened fire as he dodged his way through the remaining desks. As he found himself getting closer, he noticed the remaining two were close enough together that one shot on the side between the two could have potentially shut them both down.

With grabbing another piles of papers, he threw them up and bolted to the other side of the room. After gaining a vantage point, he peered over the desk, took aim, and fired two more rounds in the right side of the left hand Cyberman. It quickly exploded from the electrical overload, and the other took a hit from the energy but remained standing. Ben peeked over to see if he had succeeded, but was almost disappointed when he found his last target standing. Upon realizing that it was not firing back, he strutted his way towards the remaining Cyberman.

"Well my friend, are you having a little trouble with your weapons?"

"My primary weapons systems are offline" it responded with varying tones. "What did you do?"

"Simple" Ben smugly replied. "I shut you down."

"You are a human being with superior will power. You will show mercy." If Ben wasn't short of livid, he would have laughed at the very notion of a Cyberman begging for mercy. Instead, he scoffed.

"Not this time." He lifted the gun with one hand, placed the barrel next to the Cyberman's head and pulled his trigger. The Cyberman's head was removed from its body as the rest fell backwards like the other two with a thud. Benjamin sighed as he made his way back to the emergency stairwell.

"Alright Doctor, it's your show now."


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction,**_

_**Well, this is it. The big reunion scene. The one that frankly you all should have seen coming a mile away as I did allude to it in the summary and it even says in the character pairing thing at the top of the page. I got to say though, this was actually kind of hard to write as I have only seen the show (New Who anyway) all the way through once. Thus, even with what character development Rose got in the show it's still incredibly difficult to write for a character who isn't your own creation. So if she at all seems OOC, then all I ask is at least consider that I'm trying to keep it realistic in terms of the Who-niverse of what we got while predicting what she would be like in her own personal future.**_

_**Anyway, enough of that boring stuff,  
Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 6

It seemed with every step his fear of facing his past increased only more so.

Upon parting ways with Benjamin, the Doctor noticed he still had roughly eight more flights of stairs. Keeping an even pace seemed simple enough as he traversed onwards to the top floor, not knowing what to expect. The stairs were now almost seeming like an obstacle he had to overcome, and without Benjamin there to be an emotional crutch, he almost struggled with it as soon as he reached floor Twenty Three. _Two more to go_, he reminded himself as he slowed down to a steady walk, even walking over two steps at a time to make up for his lack of speed.

He reached floor Twenty Five as he moved a gun he had nicked from John's car (without telling him of course) from his vest and placed it in the side pocket of his leather jacket. Without hesitation, he opened the hatch and opened the door on the other side of the small hallway. Needless to say he did not anticipate what awaited him beyond the door.

In a moment that seemed to stop time altogether, he stared at the parallel Torchwood's lever room in sheer awe and sadness. How much of that fateful day with the Daleks and Cybermen inside Canary Wharf sprang back into his memory and nearly threatened to completely overwhelm him. Had he not remembered he had a mission objective, he probably would have stared at the wall and done nothing. Of all the places he would find Rose Tyler in Pete's World, it had to be the one place where he lost her.

Three gun shots brought him out of memory lane as broke out of the Sonic Screwdriver and put it at setting 489 to mesh the mechanics of the lock, more or less dead-bolting the door. Upon completing the setting, he whipped John's gun out of his pocket. Good timing on his part too as he realized it was probably Rose. Through the open doorways he noticed a Cyberman, but with a completely different design than he remembered. Instead of the traditional, bulky look to them this specimen had a more sleek and flexible design. Always wanting to know more about stuff he didn't know about, initial thoughts to straight up killing this Cyberman seemed almost wrong. Not without finding out the information he wanted first. Plus, in his mind, it would only seem justified to take this Cyberman's life if the plan was something of malicious intent. Of course it was, but that didn't mean that Rose would easily forgive if she knew he took another life right in front of her without proper reason. To compromise with himself, he agreed to find out what he could and if it still presented a threat, he would take out the Cyberman.

It seemed like his chance was coming after all. He noticed a woman take a turn out of the main offices of the floor and sprint through the control room into the lever room where he stood. He froze. This wasn't any regular blonde woman. This was his Bad Wolf. Sure, she was running for her life and this was no time for an official reunion, but he sure would have liked a different means for them to meet again. Time began to pick up again as he finally brought John's gun to face the advancing Cyberman. Technically the gun was pointed at Rose, but he tossed her the Sonic right as she made it through the last door.

"Rose, get down!" he shouted as she quickly caught the Screwdriver and rolled behind the door. This gave the Doctor free reign to commence firing on the Cyberman. He did not anticipate that the Cyberman would actually be flexible enough to dodge his shots and this left him nearly awestruck as he fired a shot that he knew the Cyberman would dodge right into. Luck had it the bullet struck his target in the right shoulder and clearly made some kind of damage. Damage he knew meant nothing after that shot and he would have to resort to the sleeve launcher to take it out properly. His thoughts re-focused on Rose as she slammed the control room door.

"Sonic the lock. It'll buy us some time" he ordered. Rose seemed more confused as she held the long device in her hand. She pushed the button as she could hear the locking mechanism fall apart but stay in place. What was written on her face seemed almost confusing to the Time Lord. She seemed happy to see him, but clearly had some issues they would have to talk about. Not exactly a conversation he was looking forward to, but one he had to admit would be one a long time coming. As the Doctor and his former companion stared each other down, both tried to read each other before either would dare say anything.

He had no idea where to begin. He hadn't seen her in almost twelve hundred years (even by his time, that was a long time) and even when he thought she was finally off his mind, someone would say something or some event would happen that would trigger remembrance of his pink and yellow human (even if she wasn't fully human anymore).

Her eyes darted from the Sonic Screwdriver back to the man who was holding a gun in his hand. She never doubted for a second that the man standing in this room with her, the room where she had lost him all of those years ago, was in fact the Doctor, the man she had loved and still loved. Rose figured she would need some type of answer as to why the Doctor was carrying around John's gun, which was a gift to him when he joined Torchwood five years ago. Instead of focusing on the why and how and choosing to focus on the now, Rose put on her tongue-in-teeth smile as she lobbed the Sonic back to its owner. He returned the smile without showing his teeth as they both chuckled quietly.

Their reunion was cut short as the bolts to the door all came undone simultaneously and fell to the floor revealing their opponent. The Doctor tossed John's gun to Rose as they both focused the Sonic and handgun at the Cyberman. Finally, the Doctor got a good look at it and sonic-ed to scan the contents of the armor.

Its head remained the same as the other Cybermen of the parallel he knew, but the differences became quickly noticeable from the neck down. Instead of a full breastplate of armor, in its place sat a slimmer, less bulky shape. The metal was lighter, yet more densely packed to offer more durable protection. The arms and legs were also trimmed down in a similar fashion. This started to make the Doctor wonder how the hell he even managed to hit it, let alone cause damage. Rose fired one shot and he noticed how it managed to dodge that time. It had registered the bullet approaching and fired CO2 pistons to move as quickly as it did. This suddenly made the Time Lord curious and a bit giddy, even if he was slow to admitting that part.

"Rose, stop firing." His tone was quiet as his brain began calculating the best way to obtain the element of surprise. He would need it if he was planning to take down this new, beautiful atrocity. "Tell me the whole plan. Why are Cybermen needing to upgrade their design? What was the flaw in the old look that needed fixing?" Not expecting an answer, he almost jumped (much to Rose's amusement) when it responded in a deep yet still robotic voice.

"I am the future. All Cybermen and humans will adhere to this flawless design. Our armor is impenetrable, and even if you find the firepower, we will simply maneuver. You can not possibly hope to resist upgrading." This made the Doctor nearly laugh at remembering that these Clankers didn't quite know who he was or what kind of power he possesed.

"Well I hate to break it to you, but that little 'upgrading' won't quite work on me." This made the Cyberman almost impatient with its opposition's arrogance.

"Bio-scans reveal you carry the same anatomy as our enemy The Doctor. How can you possibly have the same DNA?"

"Ah, lucky me you lot know jack shit about regeneration." Rose felt her eyes bulge at the Doctor's foul mouth but failed to bring herself to scold him as he continued. "Same man, different face, blah blah blah. Let's talk about you for a second. I must say you are absolutely gorgeous, and as you saw Rose, the reason it dodges bullets so easily is when you fire a shot it registers everything about the bullet from which angle it is approaching, the best way to avoid collision, hell, it probably even knows the serial number of the bullet and the gun from which it was fired. Then it takes all that information and applies a micro series of CO2 pistons then fires them with the precise amount of force needed to-"

"Human interaction will cease." The Cyberman ordered.

"Oi! Clanker!" He shouted in retaliation as he held two fingers up. "Two things: One, I'm not human. I'm a Time Lord. Get it right! Two: I haven't seen this woman in over twelve hundred years and if I wasn't dealing with your sassafr-ass right now, I would be..." He stopped himself as he subtly changed the setting of the Sonic back to 389B2. "I would be happier than any man alive, dead, or immortal. And I'm not letting you get in the way of that."

"You are further proving that your emotions and your fear make you weak. Perhaps I should liberate you from your feelings once and for all."

With that the Cyberman focused on Rose and began to bring its arm upward to fire the cannon. Realizing Rose didn't have enough time to find cover, the Time Lord aimed the Sonic at the Cyberman's weak spot he had made earlier and sparks flew as he knew he had to have shut down at least a couple of major defense systems. As he continued to press the button, he triggered the sleeve launcher and caught the small firearm, firing at his target's head without any form of hesitation multiple times. With its basic shield down, the laser fire had no difficulty completely removing the Cyberman's head.

He walked up to the now headless Cyberman and pushed it over. It fell with an echo across the room as he turned back to his former companion. Here they were again, getting in trouble together like she had never left. At the end of it all, all they could do was smile like a pair of idiots at each other.

They took three steps towards each other while she placed John's gun on the ground and she jumped into his arms as their lips mashed in what may have been the best snog he had gotten in over a millennia. He twirled her around a couple times as they both tried to deepen the kiss. He put her back down so they could just hold on to each other.

"I thought you'd never come back" she whispered in his ear.

"I didn't know if I ever could" he replied back. "Look, I don't how many more chances I'll actually get to say this. I may have many, I may have none but Rose Tyler-" she quickly cut him off for another snog, one that was somehow even more passionate than the last. Whether it was simply them trying to make it up to each other for all the years of happiness they had both denied themselves or just the heat of the moment, neither one seemed to care. They were both there and wanted to enjoy it, despite their ironic setting. They pulled apart as he stared into her eyes.

"I know, Doctor. I always knew."

With a sigh, they continued to just hold each other. Neither were sure if they were in the middle of a dream and if that was the case, they sure as didn't want to wake up. Slowly, they started moving towards the emergency staircase where John, Ben, Pete, and hopefully the adventures for the rest of their unnaturally long lives awaited them.


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N: Hello Fanfiction**_

_**Welcome to my attempt at a (groans) "fluff" scene. Okay, more like creating conflict for the Doctor that will play a part later on in the story while developing a romance that (hopefully) doesn't wind up in "George Lucas territory". I'm not particularly good at dialogue, as I may have said before in a previous Author's Note. I am trying to get better at writing dialogue, but I'll leave that up to the reviews to see if I'm actually improving or not. And on a final note, obviously the romance isn't the focus of this story. The focus is something else which, hopefully, will make itself more known as we continue. I hope you're ready for more traveling because as soon as this chapter is over, we're back in the TARDIS for more traveling throughout Time and Space.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 7

For the first time since River died, he finally felt some form of genuine happiness.

Yet, just like anything else that had a positive impact on his life, there was always something that got in the way. Even when mentally presenting the simple fact that Rose did come into his life before River, he had given her up to live with John and her family (and look how well that turned out). It was like Benjamin had told him earlier that day, his guilt grew to a point that it was eating him alive like a parasite. Another thing he decided that, for better or worse, he would have to try and fix during this regeneration's life.

_If Rose could help me fix that before, what would possibly stop her this time?_ He knew the obvious answer, and that terrified him; almost more so than the Cyberman prophecy. That would be another animal once they had all gone back home.

Upon resolving the Canary Wharf incident, John offered to drive Rose back to her parents' house while the Doctor rode with Pete and Ben. It wasn't that no one trusted Rose or the Doctor, but there would be a time for them to sort out their feelings and say the things they both needed to say. This also gave time for the Doctor to actually think about how the situation really felt for him.

It wasn't that he ever stopped loving Rose like he had loved Amy and Rory, Ian and Barbara, or even Sarah Jane or Ace, but he didn't expect to suddenly re-experience falling in love with his Bad Wolf. Maybe it wasn't really falling in love, but to him, it was certainly something stronger than his relationship with her before he lost her the first time. If he actually planned on asking her to come back with him, he required himself to ask at the right time.

That time, however, was not right after the last of the Cybermen had been defeated. Unbeknownst to the Time Lord, this had been a problem that had hid itself well over the last ten years. Every few months or so, the Clankers would attack a small city or somewhere they could make an escape from easily; for the most part, Torchwood was capable of stopping them yet never quite able to finish them off for good. These last four had been survivors that were spared from the Battle of Torchwood in his universe, along with twelve others. Those three squads were properly disposed of as time went but these last four were the hardest to deal with as they seemed to be constantly evolving and hitting the people where it would hurt then vanishing without a trace.

This only confused the Time Lord, making him wonder what the hell else had he missed in this parallel, if there were still Cyberman issues to be dealt with. He and Benjamin had been dropped off at the TARDIS so they could change and bring it over to his place to rest up. Seeing the chance to let her just fly over, the Doctor took the brakes off so she could run in silence. As he carefully steered his TARDIS, flying at roughly ten kilometers per hour, he found an open spot right underneath the back patio of the house. Benjamin opted to stay in his room and have the Time Lord wake him up at a reasonable time.

The Doctor felt like simply relaxing on an open loveseat he saw on the back patio. He didn't feel much for sleeping as he more did feel like just relaxing and enjoying the night. He watched the moon reflect off of a lake right behind the Tyler Mansion, leaving him in his own reflective mood. His thoughts remained on the startling events of the last few hours. Not only did he have the chance to start over with Rose, but he did something for the first time in a very long time he didn't know he was capable of:

He had taken another life. It wasn't the circumstances that concerned him rather the notion that he had killed the Cyberman so quickly. Again, maybe it was purely that he no other option at that exact moment. That didn't make sense, or at least wouldn't have, considering how long he had preached that everyone always could make a choice when it came to taking a life. This made him realize that this incarnation was bound to be far more different than any of his other past lives. That mortified him more than any battle scar from the Time War; knowing the possibility of another version of him that was a Warrior as opposed to his usual, more peaceful self.

Before he thought so hard he would hurt himself, he could hear a door opening behind him. He did a quick double take to notice Rose standing there in silky, pink robe holding two cups of tea. Her hair looked more straight yet shorter, almost like it was before he lost her the first time. With a half-smile, sat up and patted on the seat next to him as she quietly walked over and handed him a cup.

"Thanks" he muttered as he sniffed the drink. Typical Earl Grey, but still seemed like something this him would still enjoy. What almost caught him off-guard about the gesture was how late it was, for anybody that usually got a lot of sleep. "Couldn't sleep?"

Rose shook her head in response as she sipped. "Don't sleep much these days. Between Torchwood and the fact that I'm not completely human anymore, it's a rarity I actually get a full night's rest." He lightly scoffed at how his own life deprived him of rest he probably needed. "Welcome to my life." They both chuckled, yet she knew there was something bothering him. It was almost as though that was one part of her that would never change, for him anyway.

The Doctor sighed. Rose scooted up against him as placed his cup and saucer on the floor next to him.

"How did it happen?" she asked, breaking the silence while playing with his hair.

"How did what happen?" he responded, still slightly worn out from just waking up.

"Your regeneration?"

"Which one? It's happened three times since you last saw me." Rose had to think about that answer carefully, but she wanted the answers as to what happened to man she loved. "All three I suppose."

"Well" he grinned while she did from remembering her Doctor's way of doing that "after the Medusa Cascade and leaving you here again, which I apologized for, right?" He waited until she smacked him lightly on the arm before going on. "After that little mess-up, I went around on my own for a bit. Did a few things I'm really not proud of, but never mind that. Some things happened on Earth with an old enemy of mine, and I died to save Donna's grandfather. Did you ever meet him when you were trying to come back?"

She nodded while asking him to continue.

"Right, well I absorbed a bunch of radiation, didn't actually regenerate until I saw all of my companions, and saved the best for last. 'Tell you what, I'll bet you're gonna have a great year'. Sound familiar?"

He continued before she could be properly shocked.

"Then my next life, Bow Tie or Chinny, not sure what to call him, basically ended after I more or less lived to death. That was supposed to be my last incarnation but thanks to a little gift from the Time Lords, they gave me a whole new set of regenerations. After that I became this angry, old, Scottish guy with eyebrows that would have attacked you with a mind of their own."

Rose snorted as she pictured her first Doctor with a Scottish accent instead of his Northern one to give herself something of a mental picture.

"Then two days ago, Ben and I were on San Helios when the Cybermen attacked a major city. Of course, it was all just to get my attention to them. They gave me this cryptic as hell message as they shot me just so I could regenerate." He noticed her face grow worried as his own lost the attempt at a smile.

"What was the message?" He paused a second before answering.

"I will become the ultimate weapon. I will find the ones I love and I will become unstoppable, leading to my own destruction." Her eyes widened as her hand went to her mouth in disbelief.

"What are you gonna do? And what do they mean 'the ultimate weapon'?"

"I don't know" he whispered. "I don't know and to be honest Rose, I'm frightened. I hope when we get home, our original universe that is, I get to the bottom of this."

"Do you mean you and Ben, or..." she trailed off.

"What do you... Oh." He ran his head through his hair as new thoughts occurred to him. Rose, while not being tied down by marital attachments, still had a life here. Work at Torchwood seemed to bode well for both her and John, despite him having a family, and her family was still alive here. If she left with him, he would be all she would have. Jack had his life defending Earth, as did Mickey and Martha. Donna couldn't remember any of them, lest she die from the mental implosion. Who knew how much longer Sarah Jane really had, and the Brigadier had long since passed. He thought back on what John had told him earlier.

Sure, life would still be just as dangerous as it was before, but he needed her just like she needed him. Not only to fill the void left empty by River, but also to fill the potential that always ran through his head of what could have been between them.

"About that..." he chose his words carefully as he took her hand and put his other arm around her. "Look, I made a huge mistake. I can admit that now. I let myself go so long without someone to truly stop me. I've had companions since you, obviously. But, none of them quite had the same impact that you did. As I regenerated into this me, I saw something from my past that I never want to see again. And if I don't do something to try and stop it now, I dread any universe of what might come of it. The point is..." He stared into her to make sure he had her full attention. Upon realizing she never took her eyes off of him, he finished. "Come back with me. I'm thinking it's time I kept you true to your promise. What do you say?"

He remained silent as he let Rose take in everything he had just opened up to her, hoping he hadn't accidentally let too much of his own insecurity slip through. Rather than a verbal response like he had expected her to give, she leaned forward and gently pressed her lips to his as he kissed back tenderly. After breaking apart, she simply smiled at him.

"No more regrets, Doctor."

He could only beam as he placed another soft kiss in her hair and took off his leather jacket as he placed it around her shoulders as they continued to watch the very beginnings of the sunrise.

"I've never known you to be so chivalrous Doctor." He lightly jerked his head back in mock offense, gasping at such a statement.

"Ouch. Rose Tyler, how you can possibly make such an absurd remark?"

"Do you want every time chronologically or alphabetically?" He shook off her response with a "Pfft!" They pecked lips one last time as they cuddled together on the loveseat. The sun was slowly making its way up as they both felt it being almost symbolic. Right as it peaked above the horizon line, the Doctor could feel Rose's heart beating slowly as she slowly fell asleep in his arms. Moving her cup and saucer from her lap and placing next to his own, without waking her up obviously, he continued to wind down as he took in the sight of the sun. His eyes began drooping as he eventually gave into sleep.

If he were still awake, he would have heard birds chirping in the backyard, and he also would have heard the crow that came in scared all of them away.


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, c**__**learly I need to focus a little better on choosing a set pattern of when to post new chapters. The pattern lately seems to be post two a week, then post one a week, then post two a week again, and so on so forth. I know it's only a few chapters in but in fairness to me, I'm kind of a busy guy and this is a hobby taking the place of a dream that might never happen. That is no excuse for update inconsistency, but I digress. On to the story, we're finally leaving Pete's World (took long enough, I know). I was going to write a Jackie-Doctor dialogue scene, but then a thought occurred to me. By this point, she would probably have little to actually say to the Doctor, what with everything between him and Rose beforehand then the stuff with John (which I will get into as the story progresses). **_

_**(Heath Ledger Joker voice)And here... we... go,  
Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 8

He didn't remember his dreams often.

Mostly that was because of the fact that he rarely slept. When he found himself having dozed off or passed out, his dreams felt completely lifeless; it was almost like all the imagination and child-like whimsy that constantly bounced around in his head would just relax completely. Sometimes he found that when he did actually find himself asleep his dreams would almost seem cliché. Some dreams revolved around the Time War and Siege of Trenzalore, while others were replays of losing the Ponds or Adric to name a few of his losses, and some (he was convinced) were alternate timelines of just about everything that ever happened in his life, both good and bad. It was the dreams he had no interpretation of that left him feeling petrified.

This was one of those dreams.

He felt himself stir as though he were actually waking up. He began to open up his eyes as a bright light forbade him from the full use of his sight. With an inability to distinguish a sense of distance, a constant series of beeps entered his ears. This interpreted itself as a heart monitor that was attached correctly.

_Clearly, I'm in a laboratory and the bad guys know I'm a Time Lord. Great... _he mentally deadpanned.

He groaned as he attempted getting up but after a few honest tries, he found himself immobile due to several cast iron restraints. With the limited head mobility he had, he turned his head to the right hand side and could only see darkness. Within the darkness, he could make out silhouettes of no particular shape creep around like shadows in the night. Based on the technology of what he could see, the location of his dilemma only further alluded him, almost bringing him to frustration. Unless Benjamin was dead or gone, he would have come in guns a-blazing by now, then given him a cute one-liner about having to save his life, again. His restraints seemed to almost tighten as he heard a soft, yet threatening computerized voice:

"Consciousness at thirty-one percent. Memory download at twelve percent."

He pondered what in the hell that possibly meant for him. How had he lost his memory prior to these events in this laboratory? More importantly, in his mind's eye, who had control of his memories as they seemed to download them back into him. He began to see a shape move closer holding some kind of needle-like object in its hand. He attempted to shout but he seemed too weak to actually speak. This made no sense to him. He was wide awake, yet somehow he was completely immobile, even in speech. Still not realizing how he had woken up in this laboratory was his last concern, while reason being there took a back seat to what his foe's true intention was. All that he achieved for any form of response was the voice again as he started to feel the needle begin to penetrate his skin:

"Disconnect link in five, four, three, two, one-"

"NO!" He screamed back into reality. His eyes hurt from trying to wake up suddenly in direct sunlight as he jerked himself into an upright position. He discovered he wasn't in a laboratory, but rather had never left the loveseat. He began to breathe heavily, and began to fear a panic attack. He started to lose control, and would have lost it if he didn't feel a gentle hand caress his shoulder.

He turned his head slightly to see Rose gently smile as she scooted onto his lap to hold him. He placed his arm around her and they continued to cuddle as he finally felt like he had no reason to hold anything in anymore. All she had to do to figure out his problem was look into his eyes to know that he was feeling under stress. That was the one thing Rose managed to do for him that no other companion before her was truly able to do. The last of his guilt seemed to wash away as they noticed the time of day on them finally. The moment fell apart when Benjamin called out from the TARDIS doorway:

"Doctor! Where are you, mate? We've only got eight hours and twelve minutes! We should get prepped to go."

With the moment broken, the Doctor hoisted himself off the loveseat. He offered his hand to Rose, who took it with a smile as he pulled her to him for a quick snog. Upon breaking apart, they went about their separate ways to make preparations for leaving. The Doctor made his way down the patio steps towards the TARDIS. He snapped his fingers to open the door and jogged up to the time rotor to establish coordinates for the Time Vortex. He had no idea where he wanted to go first, maybe somewhere that was special for himself and Rose, or maybe they could go visit some of their old friends back on Earth. He continued to ponder as someone he assumed was Benjamin approached him.

"You think any harder and I'll have to get you committed." The Doctor glanced over to see John strolling in and looking around the console room. "And I thought I let this place go." He strolled up to the Doctor's bookshelf and picked up a selection of Shakespeare's work. "I'm not quite sure I like it."

The Doctor wasn't sure if he should be offended, as he had seen the same console room for over a hundred years and hadn't used the old coral theme for over a millennia. He tried to understand John's perspective of not only having seen the TARDIS in six years, but he hadn't seen what the Old Girl had been through in the time since the Medusa Cascade. He shrugged it off as he viewed the monitor a little more closely when a silent alarm came on.

"Where's Rose?"

"She's heading back at her apartment to pack. Shouldn't take too long." John replied, raising an eyebrow when he heard the cloister bell. "What's going on now?" The Doctor put on a pair of large-framed spectacles as he observed the monitor then used a finger to wave John over to the monitor.

"Look at this. Tell me you see this." John took a step back as the Doctor put his spectacles back in his jacket pocket.

"That's impossible" John murmured. The Doctor snorted in disbelief.

"You did not just say that sentence out loud. This actually makes some sense given all the damage that we've all done over time. Hell, from restarting our universe and all of the pocket universes I've traveled to in my time in mixture with the cracks in time and space, I'm surprised this is the worst that this has gotten."

"How bad what has gotten?" Benjamin inquired, putting John's rifle back in the case that John had left in the doorway.

"You're not gonna believe it." John responded, seating himself in the Doctor's captain's chair. "So you're aware that parallel universe travel should be impossible, right?" Benjamin nodded quickly for John to continue. "Well, here's the problem. This is obviously not the first time that the Doctor has traveled to this particular parallel. As a result of that, this universe is enduring consequences that have begun to align it closer to our original universe. It will never reach the point where the two touch, but they are beginning to bring themselves closer. Not to mention Rose's travels between this parallel and our universe have only further scarred the damage done before. That in combination with what the Doctor says happened back in our original universe has made travel between this parallel and our universe almost like traveling to a pocket universe." He whipped out a medium-sized device and placed it on the console. "I brought the last dimension cannon we tried to make in case you want to integrate it into the TARDIS's Central Computer. Your choice, though."

Any form of confusion or shock that the Doctor felt flew right out of him. Not only could he and Rose be allowed to go back to the life they had. Not only did this revelation bring the ability to stay in touch with her family and John, but now this opened up new possibilities of how to find Gallifrey and restore it to his universe finally. He smiled without showing his teeth and moved towards the dimension cannon and handed it to his companion.

"How soon can you have this ready?" Benjamin took it and moved himself underneath the Time Rotor, finding a spot where to place the cannon.

"I can probably integrate it within an hour. Are you sure you want to test it when we leave when we have a sure-fire way to get back?" The Doctor snorted.

"Not trying to say we should test it now, but I do want to try it sooner versus later. Might come in handy for trying something I've never done before."

"And what would that be?" Benjamin called from under the Rotor.

"I'll let you know later."

John had to give him a very confused look, which the Doctor shrugged off. He had other things on his mind as he continued getting the TARDIS ready for catching a ride on the Vortex.

"You want to help get us ready?" John put on a fake smile but nodded his head as he took the Sonic Screwdriver to join Benjamin underneath the Rotor. The Doctor meanwhile took a second to soak in the surreality of the adventure this body of his had endured so far. So much happened for only two days being in this body and it made him feel like his mortality only had a tighter grip on him. Mentally needing to think about something else, he decided to go back to something John had said earlier. "So when you say it shouldn't take too long for Rose to pack, what do you mean exactly?"

John sighed. He had already explained enough about Rose for her and didn't want to pretty much tell him everything when they would have all of time and space to talk about what has happened for both of them. Anything else and John would have more or less summed up everything that Rose had gone through in the last ten years. All that the Doctor saw on his face was another convenient smile as he went back to finish installing the dimension cannon.

"She can tell you all about that. You should be worried about when Jackie comes walking through the door."

The Time Lord gulped. He remembered how being slapped the first time hadn't so much hurt him physically, but rather his pride felt damaged as a result. In nine hundred years of being alive (at that point), not only had he ever been so involved in a companion's personal life, but he had never been slapped by a companion's parent. Hell, it was just as rare that he had even met a companion's parents prior to meeting Rose (a trend that Sandshoes certainly didn't like when Martha's mother had slapped him). The thing that scared him wasn't the notion of getting slapped by Jackie Tyler, it was losing some pride in the slap like before. Things only felt worse for him when he heard a knock at the door.

Swallowing his pride, he crept towards the door and opened it to reveal Jackie with a very emotionless look on her face. The Doctor knew he wanted to say everything to fix old wounds and wanted to give her all of the good news of the revelation with moving between parallels, but he had no idea where to start. He stepped out onto the back lawn to face her. He sighed as he closed his eyes in anticipation for a slap like he had never been slapped before. Nearly a full minute passed by before he opened one eye to a shocking surprise of Jackie throwing herself to give him a bear hug. As soon as he made a move to return the hug, she broke it off and backed towards the house. The last thing he saw was her walking into the house with a tear going down her cheek.

"Don't." John muttered to his Time Lord counterpart, who seemed to make a move to follow her. He quietly walked back in the doorway and snapped his fingers to shut the door. "Much like Rose, Jackie has been dealing with a lot through seeing her daughter in pain. I know you're not aware of that much of what's been going on. It's basically her way of saying she's glad to see Rose have another chance at happiness, but the cost is knowing she might never see her daughter again. You should try just not going after her. I'll fill her in with what's going on. Maybe she'll actually give up the 'no words' solution. And don't worry, she did the same thing to me for nearly six months when Rose and I called off our relationship." The Doctor smiled as he gave a quick snort.

"Why am I not surprised? She spent all of that time trying to make sure that I would never hurt her, then I did, now I'm trying to fix my mistakes and of course it backfires. I feel like my life is turning into a bad movie." John chuckled as he handed the Doctor his Screwdriver back.

"Less plot." Benjamin threw in his two cents to John and the Doctor's to earn a glare from the Time Lord.

"Are you done down there?"

"Yeah I'm finished mate." Ben pulled himself back to the main floor. "At this point, the software just needs to integrate itself into the system. And if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to my room to change. Do me a favor and don't shag Rose right on the top of console. I don't want to have to re-install the cannon."

John cracked up into a series of snickers as the Doctor blushed at his friend's surprising response. How much the Doctor had teased Benjamin about the three times he had snuck women on board the TARDIS to his disapproval now seemed to come back against him. John patted the Time Lord on the back as he let himself out of the TARDIS to pick up a phone call.

"Well Old Girl," the Doctor stroked the console as he spoke "we're going home for new adventures." The yellow lights coming off the Time Rotor came off as hopeful for him. Silently, he put his Sonic back in his jacket pocket and proceeded to the Zero Room for some quiet meditation he would need before going back home.

As the day continued to progress, the TARDIS gave him mental notification that Rose had finally arrived and it was almost time for departure. He had dozed off for a bit but the Old Girl managed to wake him up again, luckily without any ominous nightmares. As he approached the console room, he took one look at Benjamin who gave him the nod to say it was time to go. John and Rose gave each other a very tight hug goodbye as the Doctor stepped in with his hand extended, which John took. Upon his final wave of goodbye, he went over to the dematerialization lever and pulled it down. He waited until Rose grabbed him by the hand then together they pulled it back it up, starting their new journey through time and space.


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, so I've noticed something as I continue to work on this story. Pretty much everything I say in these Author's Notes kinda has a funny of completely summing up my work flow. It's not like I'm trying to contradict myself in terms of chapter updates or anything, but I find it just fascinating that there was a pattern to the updates and now it's tossed out the window because I typed up two chapters in two days. **_

_**But on a completely different note, I just want to send a huge shoutout to everyone who's reviewed/favorited/following **__**Rise of the Valeyard.**__** It means so much to me when a story idea I kinda just came up with out of the blue is worth your time and you give me feedback, whether it's in an actual review or just a PM to me. Even if all you say is just keep going with the pattern you're doing, it tells me that I've got something worthwhile not only to me, but to some of you as well. So from the bottom of my heart(s), thank you so much for giving **__**Rise of the Valeyard**__** a look and telling me what you think. In honor of that, here's the next chapter.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 9

He was surprised how easy it was coming home.

Upon immediate dematerialization, the TARDIS took flight towards an opening in the Time Vortex nearly a light-year away from Earth. Outside of the ship, the vacuum and colorless void that was the Solar System now turned into a lively mix of piercing blues and softening yellows tied in with the blink-and-you'll-miss-it conglomeration of stars and nebulas. Each had their own unique shade of green blended with purples and oranges surrounded with dark, misty reds. The stars, on the other hand, were much like the stars of the TARDIS's home universe, zipping by majestic red giants and breath-taking white dwarfs. The blue police box did experience turbulence when it accidentally steered itself right through a small nebula. The nebula itself was undamaged, as was the TARDIS, but the sudden instability led to shaking led to shaking that was certainly felt inside. As soon as it cleared, however, the TARDIS picked up full speed again and zoomed on to home.

Inside the main console room, the three passengers held on for dear life as the Doctor attempted to maintain stability. He went after the now red stabilizers (as blue was a rubbish color to make the stabilizers in the first place, in his mind anyway) and pulled them all into place. He then went about setting coordinates for the first possible place he could send the ship towards. It maybe seemed a little early to go to Cardiff and refuel as he had at least two more weeks of travel with the reserve energy. Instead, he set a course for Sto in the hopes of letting Benjamin have time with his own family while he and Rose would get a little one-on-one time without making him feel like a third wheel. Speaking of, she seemed to have quite the smirk on her face as he prepared a comeback for whatever comment she would have.

"Blimey Doctor, I'm gone for a few years and you managed to get worse at driving." He would have thrown his first comeback, but after she threw in her tongue-in-teeth smile he kept his mouth shut, just smiling back at her. Benjamin rolled his eyes with his own grin as the cloister bell rang out across the console room.

"Alright mate, it seems we're coming up on the opening. Hold tight!" he shouted the last two words as all three grabbed a section of railing.

Soaring towards the opening which would only hold for another ten minutes, the sentient ship re-routed power to her shields as she decreased velocity once she finally approached the opening. Seeing as the Old Girl planned on what the best course of action for making it home would be: that being fly right in, make it through the void, and hope they landed somewhere decent. Closing in on the target, the TARDIS nearly grinded to a halt as it penetrated the outer wall of the void gap, then picked up right as soon as she knew she was through. If only the passengers inside felt the same level of success was being done.

Inside the TARDIS, sparks flew out all over the console as the Doctor whipped out his Sonic, placing it at setting 392B to combat any openings where the sparks could fly out and hurt either Benjamin or Rose. He knew that he was more than capable of holding his own with the pain of getting burnt, as the Old Girl had done to him on so many occasions where he tried providing "maintenance". He struggled to throw himself at the console to view the monitor and check their progress. Only approximately two more minutes, then they would be home free.

He attempted to multi-task with keeping the coordinates in place with an attempt to stabilize the ship as best as he could while she kept zooming through the void at full power. The closer and closer they got to arriving at the hole in time and space, the shakier the trip got for the trio. Pulling the monitor to him, he noticed that the final gap was only thirty seconds away. Making a move for the dematerialization lever, he pulled it down in anticipation for the last twenty seconds to come around. He smiled at the Old Girl as she plowed right through the other end of the Void. Once cleared of the void opening from a relatively safe distance, he pulled the lever back up as he doubled checked the coordinates. A little surprise came out of nowhere and nearly threw everything into chaos.

No one on board the TARDIS had actually tried this new mean of traveling between parallels, thus not expecting any form of consequences that could have come from it. As they cleared, matter built up from the leftover kinetic energy of the TARDIS and began moving all around the opening gap like a shockwave. Naturally, an object in motion tends to stay in motion as the shockwave continued towards the sentient ship and rammed the blue police box with all the leftover force from the speed at which it was previously traveling with.

For a mere second, there was a feeling of weightlessness in the console room of the TARDIS. Benjamin never took his hold off of the railing as the collision occurred. Rose was forced to launch herself underneath the Time Rotor as she nearly thrown into the wall on her back. The Doctor, unfortunately, wasn't as lucky as his companion or his lover. With a cry of shock, he unintentionally knocked the controls, changing the coordinates. He continued to be thrown about as his head knocked into the glass casing of the Time Rotor and fell back onto the floor unconscious as stability resumed.

"Doctor!" Benjamin cried as he rushed to his friend's aide. _Bloody hell, not again_ he thought to himself. Rose also pulled herself up quickly as the two quickly tried to move him to the med bay. They felt a soft thud as they both knew the TARDIS had actually landed by this point.

Once they had reached the med bay, which the Old Girl was kind enough to bring to them as soon as they had left the console room, they placed the Time Lord on the bed and quickly scanned him to see if any serious damage had occurred to him. Several scans later revealed he was in stable condition and would recover probably within a few minutes. Rose took this time to excuse herself from the room and go back to her old room. Benjamin meanwhile stayed with him, somewhat hoping he would come around soon and not have to wait twelve hours like he did last time. He was watching the Doctor's facial expressions carefully as seemed to look like he was in some kind of pain or distress, it was hard to tell at the moment. Yet, something told him that his friend was going through a little more than he honestly wanted to admit.

The Doctor woke up in the same setting as the dream from the night beforehand. The bright light from before was also there and still made it next to impossible to actually make anything out. He tried to rely on his other senses but wherever this dream took place seemed to almost completely render anything that wasn't sight absolutely useless.

_Damn, _he thought, _I need to figure out what the hell this all means._ He began feeling more frustrated as the dream continued on and more shadows in the darkness moved around. He began to question if this was a dream or if it was more like a vision. He had had visions of potential timelines before, but those were all when he was completely conscious. This was a new experience in and of itself. In the same style as last time, the only response of any kind from the dream he got was that same damned voice as before:

"Consciousness at forty three percent. Memory download at twenty two percent."

He wanted answers and he tried to call out, but all he could do was mutter something completely incoherent. Under the stress of having just been knocked out (again) and traveling to and from a parallel universe had all but entirely diminished his patience. He needed to know what the hell was going on, and he needed to know soon. What kind of omen was this? Was it even an omen? Was it all just some sick, morbid fantasy playing with his emotions as a coping mechanism designed to make him not pursue any form of happiness with Rose, what was it? The frustration continued til the voice spoke out, just like before:

"Disconnecting link in five, four, three, two, one-"

"No! No! I need answers!" He jolted himself into awareness of being awake. He brought himself upright as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his right hand. Benjamin looked clearly concerned but didn't ask any questions. He simply gave him a nod of understanding, to which the Doctor nodded back to his friend. He massaged the top of his head to feel for any spots of pain and was pleasantly surprised to find none. His demeanor changed for the better though when Rose walked into the room. He gave her a quick smile without showing teeth as he got up and gave her a huge hug. They twirled around three times and shared a quick kiss as he held her to him.

"You really need to work on your flying" she whispered to him.

"For once," he quietly replied, "I couldn't agree more." She gave him her tongue-in-teeth smile again as they let each other go. Taking her hand, he waved Benjamin to follow them.

"Well, seeing as how I messed the coordinates, let's see where we landed" he stated as the trio approached the main door to the TARDIS. He stopped as he put his hand on the door. He looked at Rose with another smile.

"You ready?" She only looked into his almost mischievous eyes, almost like he was hoping trouble would find them, like in the good days before Bad Wolf Bay.

"As I'll ever be."

With that, he opened to door to reveal a rocky coastline. He knew it was some sort of gut instinct that maybe it would be better if they all got back in the TARDIS and went somewhere a little more comfortable. As the three continued to move along the sand and rocks, he felt almost like he had been here before but the name of the planet was escaping him. A quick hand squeeze from Rose brought him out of his funk temporarily as Benjamin broke off and started heading towards a clifftop. Realizing he finally had a moment alone with Rose, he stood perfectly still as just watched the waves crash over the rocks.

It was almost like he needed to know that this was reality and not some made up fantasy where he was actually strapped in that horrifying room he had seen in his dreams. He would make sure to tell Rose about it sooner versus later, but speaking of her, he needed to know if what they had was still there and it wasn't just some need for her after being alone for so long. He found himself staring into her eyes to find nothing but love and compassion, just like the Rose Tyler who stole his hearts and never returned them.

"How long are you gonna stay with me?" He gave her nothing but his complete honesty as he revealed all of his pain in his eyes. She gave him the response he expected, but hoped wouldn't be out of obligation.

"Forever." They both smiled as she lifted one finger up. "And no, I don't want a ring or anything like that. But I want one thing I know you're still struggling with. I want your absolute trust. No more hiding me while you run off to play hero. We're in this together, alright?"

"Alright. Together." With that simple affirmation, they held each other. Nothing overly romantic, just simply holding each other, as two people who had felt love and betrayal would after finally finding something worthwhile. The moment was broken again by Benjamin calling out from the distance.

"Hey Doctor, Rose! Come and take a look at this!" They pulled each other apart as they grabbed hands and dashed to catch up to him.

Moments later, as they closed in, he lead them up to the top of the cliff, overlooking the sight of a crashed ship. The Doctor recognized it instantly. His eyes bulged as memories of the Weeping Angels flooded in. Amy and the reverse counting. Father Octavian and the sacrifice he made. Angel Bob and making him say the Angels had no need for comfy chairs. Oh yes, this was the Byzantium. Not too far off from the Maze of the Dead where so many lives were needlessly lost to the Angels.

The last sting was River. How brilliantly she had handled herself in the situation, knowing at any possible second she could have lost her mother and thereby being erased from existence entirely. How she had figured out the Doctor's plan to send the Angels into the crack to wipe them from existence. And how it was after this day, she was pardoned for murdering him (allegedly). This culminated in so many feelings that the Doctor had to put on a fairly emotionless face to hide his pain.

"Oh. Shit" was all he could muster to say.

"What, have you been before?" Benjamin asked, almost sarcastically.

"That's one way of putting it." The Doctor replied. "This is Alfava Metraxis. The former nesting ground to a whole army of Weeping Angels. Nasty creatures, but they're all dead here. Come on, let's find a place around here that isn't so depressing, huh?"

With that, the Time Lord look worried as he started the pace back towards the TARDIS and hopefully, for him, civilization. Rose and Ben shared a quick look of concern as they followed up without question. They knew not to ask questions about how the Doctor was aware of that information. Yet.


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, so it seems we're just gonna keep rollin' rollin' rollin' rollin' (Sorry, woke up to Limp Bizkit of all artists) right through the story. Got a new location, new characters, a new threat (or is it new), and some things happening that might just get the plot in motion. I have nothing else that's super clever to say unfortunately, usually I got something. Oh well,**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 10

To him, it seemed nothing in the universe could surprise him anymore.

The Doctor, Rose, and Benjamin trekked along the coastline sharing stories of past experiences traveling with the Time Lord. Rose began with telling how she and the Doctor had met right up until she had been lost in Pete's World the first time. Ben made sure he didn't look like he was ready to cry when he envisioned them saying goodbye at Bad Wolf Bay. She intentionally left out the events at the Medusa Cascade, hoping the Doctor had already explained that or he didn't care about them meeting back up.

Benjamin lightened the mood with a slightly inaccurate version of him meeting the Doctor, which the Doctor shied away from correcting him on. Not to say that Ben was overly exaggerating the story, but the Doctor didn't recall any massive Dalek army or whatever it was that Benjamin said he had saved him and his mates from. Ben was a survivor, the last of a crew that had been abandoned by their superiors. With sheer cunning and a loose moral code, they managed to last as long as they did by doing what was necessary to survive. That was why the Doctor took the young man with him: to hope that he could show him a different way to live, and maybe learn something about himself along the way.

The planet the TARDIS had brought them was originally original home of the Aplans, now home to a human colony as of the fifty-first century. Judging by the condition of the Byzantium crash, at most only a couple years had past since the incident with the Weeping Angels. If there was any place to get a head start on finding ways to redeem himself, why not one of the places where he came and went after almost dooming the entire planet to die at the hands of a terrifying enemy.

Nearly twenty minutes passed as the three spotted a series of caves with what appeared to be a fifty-first century spaceship grounded by the entrance to the largest cave. The Doctor was keeping surprisingly quiet about where they were and his previous adventures on this particular planet. He gave his almost expected happy-go-lucky expression and they approached the main door of the largest cave. A middle aged man with Arabic attire came towards them in a hover speeder he was standing on.

"Welcome to Alfava, northernmost city on Alfava Metraxis. I am Ramsay Musselli. Pray may I ask, dear travelers, who are you?" Benjamin stepped forward to introduce himself and the group, leaving the Doctor amused at the notion of not getting the honor.

"I am Benjamin Westoff of Sto. This is Rose Tyler of Sol Three and The Doctor of Gallifrey." Ramsay's eyes immediately went to the Doctor with a look of mistrust towards the Time Lord.

"So, this is the famous Doctor who made us evacuate our homes nearly twenty years ago?" The Doctor was about to put up his hands in defense and leave towards the TARDIS, but Ramsay put on another smile as he laughed and patted the Time Lord on the back. "All was forgiven long ago, my friend. If anything, we are grateful that the Weeping Angels were disposed of. In truth, upon hearing the news of your triumph I had always hoped that we could have given you our proper thanks. Please, follow me. I will happily show you around Alfava." With that, the four of them hopped onto a hover speeder, passing a checkpoint which scanned the vehicle's ID number and allowed them access into the city.

He always felt like it was a privilege to learn about other cultures. What this colony had done was build an entire network of tunnels which utilized the caves to its advantage, should the colonists ever find themselves at war. Upon driving into a cave lit only by fluorescent lights across the ceiling, they reached the main square. The city was your average hustle and bustle of any city in any time period, but that fascinated the Doctor. He had seen his share of underground villages and bases built in caves, but this was something completely new.

The citizens had an established university, several churches (as the Papal Mainframe did help them establish the colony after all), a town government center, and a complete farmer's market. That must have meant they established a terraforming process somewhere and he wanted to get a good look at how that was accomplished.

"Say Ramsay, what's there for entertainment here in Alfava?" Benjamin asked, still soaking in the sight.

"On the third building to your right is our community theatre. We have been praised as hosting some of the best interpretations of writers from all planets, even reaching as far back as Sol Three's Shakespearian times. I myself was in a production of MacBeth as Duncan. It was a glorious event, ran for two months if I recall." The Doctor nodded as he reminisced on his own Shakespeare adventures.

"I'm not sure if it actually tops seeing the Bard in person at the theatre. Love's Labours Lost was quite the showing."

"What do you mean, Doctor?" Ramsay asked, slightly confused.

"I'm older than I look" was the only response the Doctor would give him.

He took one look at Rose and she smirked at his playful arrogance, glad more than anything to be back to doing what the two of them did. Going somewhere new and learning something they never even conceived possible.

"And when was this little adventure, Doctor?"

"That, dear Rose, is quite a story. Not too long after, well you know, I found myself paying my friend Martha Jones a life debt by taking her to see Shakespeare in person. We found ourselves facing actual Carrionites, or witches as the more boring term." This peaked Rose's interest, partially based on seeing as how John never did quite fill her in on what happened in between Bad Wolf Bay trips.

"And how did you and Martha stop the witches?"

"With a little poetry, a little rhyming here and there. You're gonna love this. For the final line, we needed an 'us' word, the first thing Martha came up with was 'Expelliarmus'." Rose jumped at the memory of the Harry Potter phenomenon she grew up with.

"Harry Potter! Oh my god, did you seriously use that?" The Doctor just shrugged and put on his smug face with a wink.

"Ehh, it worked." They both shared a nice chuckle that continued until Rose caught something out of the corner of her eye and she asked Ramsay to slow down. He obliged quite willingly as a group of people were gathered around a Vinvocci who had collapsed in the square. The Doctor hopped off and immediately pushed his way towards the fallen alien.

"Out of the way. I'm a Doctor and I speak Vinvocci" he called out, fishing through his pockets until he grasped the Sonic. Pulling it out of his jacket, he set to scanning the Vinvocci. "Life signs are reading somewhat normal. You must have had one hell of a run. What happened?"

The Vinvocci responded in his native language, which the Doctor was able to mentally translate. He proceeded to speak, his emotion getting more and more intense as he continued to impart his tale. He was nearly exhausted from speaking and probably would have passed out until the Doctor told him he could relax and he would relay the information. He waved his companions and Ramsay closer towards him. Rose put on a half-smile, knowing some form of adventure was coming again. Benjamin and Ramsay, however, remained stone faced, not knowing what the situation was going to be this time.

"Well, it seems our friend here had a fairly frightening encounter. Apparently he and some of his crew mates were bringing some kind of shipment back here when they were ambushed down in a canyon about two leagues east. They were picked off one by one, but here's where it's interesting. There were no bodies left, they just vanished. Several possible theories, but I've seen this before plenty of times." He faced everyone in the group of people. "Clearly, this was the work of a criminal syndicate with teleportation capabilities. I don't know where his friends wound up but I do know there's a good chance whoever was responsible is still there and I vow, good people of Alfava, I will bring them to justice."

A mild applause rang throughout the crowd. Ramsay himself was impressed with the Doctor's public speaking but he knew when something was amiss. Shaking it off, he ushered the crowd to begin to dissipate. The Doctor helped him with this as he leaned in close to keep the conversation low.

"Ramsay, I'm asking to use your hover speeder to take myself and my companions with me. We're specialized in helping out with situations like this."

"Of course, my friend. Are you sure you do not require other assistance?" Taking one look at his friend and his lover, he knew the answer instantly. With a quick shake, the two made a move back to the speeder when Rose piped up.

"Actually Ramsay, may I ask. Has this sort of thing happened before?"

"Yes it has miss Tyler. We have heard reports over the last couple months of people disappearing in that canyon to never be heard from again. Why do you ask?"

"Can I speak with the families of the previous victims?" She held her hand up when the Doctor held up a finger with an exaggerated look of confusion. "I know what you're going to say Doctor, but this will be just as helpful, and I'll be careful. I promise."

The Doctor had to agree, even if it was reluctantly. Any extra form of intel would not only prove vital to figuring out this particular incident, but maybe would give a clue as to who was responsible for causing these people to be in distress. _Imagine that_, he thought to himself, _back in my universe for three hours and I'm back in the swing of things._

"Well Ramsay, can you set her up?"

"Yes I can" he replied, "I will escort you to the government center and together we will speak with the victims' families."

As they walked back to the hover speeder, Ramsay asked if either the Doctor or Ben knew how to operate it. Luckily for Benjamin, it was a slightly updated version of what he used in his battalion's old ship. He dropped off Rose and Ramsay at the government center, then made his way towards the checkpoint. Upon scanning the ID, he made his out of the city to follow the coordinates given to him of the canyon. He could tell this was bothering the Doctor, but he didn't know if he would be able to pry his friend to get what he felt he needed to know.

"Relax mate, I'm sure she'll be fine. Ramsay seems like a good guy and from what I've gathered about her so far, she is more than capable of keeping him in line." He reassured the Time Lord, hopefully to some avail.

"That's not what I'm worried about, Westy. I'm worried about whatever's out there."

"What do you think it is?" He asked, hoping for the answer that would require action.

"Unfinished business." Benjamin could see that he was gonna have a hell of a time getting anything else out of his friend as the hover speeder continued to speed along to their destination. Neither one honestly knew what they were up against, but both figured that if they would both use their heads and figure out the best advantage to solving the problem, everything would work itself out alright.


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, I'm back with another chapter. Time to get an answer, and throw some more questions that are unanswered. MWAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm not that evil, I swear. (Insert creepy looking picture of Steven Moffat here)**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 11

In his eyes, revenge was an idea best left to those who deserved it.

The Doctor and Benjamin had only been in the hover speeder for about ten minutes when they approached the canyon the Vinvocci had described earlier. Its name roughly translated as "Gates to the Dead", most likely referring to another entrance to the Maze of the Dead from the Byzantium incident. Being back on this planet near that Rassilon-forsaken ship brought up bad memory after bad memory, not that he was in the mood for sharing. The plan was simple: figure out who (or what) was behind the disappearances, and bring them to the colonists. Then Rose, Ben, and himself would get out of there faster than you could say "Allons-y" and let Ramsay and the local government take care of the situation. The longer any of them felt a need to stay and help, the more and more he was reminded of how much damage he had technically done the first time he was here.

The canyon itself was roughly three miles long, two hundred yards across, and only thirty feet at its lowest point, making it decently accessible for trade caravans. In the bit of information the hover speeder was able to provide them with, it was used back in the days of Aplans as a secret route soldiers would take to surprise enemy forces. Then when the Church came and helped colonize it, they would sometimes use this route to get to and from a rock quarry that was being operated some twenty miles from Alfava. Otherwise unless you were a smuggler and needed a way to get around without being detected, the colonists and the Church both tried to minimize the use of this canyon. Aside from the potential danger of rockslides, there just wasn't use for it due to it being out of the way for most people.

Benjamin continued to pilot the hover speeder with some caution as the duo continued down the path. The Doctor, meanwhile, was focusing more on trying keeping his eyes peeled on everything except for what was actually in front of him and Benjamin. He knew that Benjamin was gonna ask questions relentlessly and he would have to answer them at some point, but until that time came, he kept his focus on the plan. They came within visual distance of a somewhat large container being held up by anti gravity engines. It was gray and silver on its exterior but also had streaks of red in a particular octagonal pattern. The Doctor took controls from Ben as he brought it to a stop nearly a hundred yards from the crate, much to Ben's irritation.

"Why are you making me stop so far away mate? If it's a trap, wouldn't it be better to spring it when we have an actual chance to get away?" The Doctor scratched his head as he tried to find a specific setting on the Sonic Screwdriver.

"Westy, I don't say this often, but for once, I need you to trust me on this completely. Establish a comm link with the government center, give them our coordinates, and call for immediate backup. I'm gonna go spring the trap and hopefully not get myself killed." With that, he jumped out of the speeder while Benjamin calibrated the communications frequency to reach the city.

"Yeah, try not to blow up all golden again and maybe turn into a guy with a better sense of humor" he snarked to himself, not that the Time Lord would have heard him. "Hello, Alfava, this is ESB-One-Nine-Eight-Zero requesting back up. Yes, I'm borrowing Ramsay Musselli's speeder with his consent and I am currently calling from 'The Gates to the Dead'. Coordinates have been sent. Send what units you can, over and out."

The Doctor found himself surprisingly calm and collected as he finally found setting 398B2 and utilized the electrical impulse to take down the invisible forcefield that surrounded the crate. The amount of energy in the forcefield could not have been enough to kill anyone, he gathered. Most likely it was strong enough to shut a body down, but more of an unconscious state as opposed to outright killing. Maybe that was how this syndicate was taking people. People would fall into the trap, then collapse from the electrical power and whoever was on duty would swoop right in and take those who were unable to fend for themselves. Except today something went wrong. That was where things had become interesting, simply because something went awry. He called to his companion, waving him to the crate.

"Westy!" Ben quickly got out of the speeder but found himself begin to peel his eyes to every which way he could, beginning to feel the same paranoia the Doctor was feeling earlier.

"You get the feeling someone's watching us?"

"Something is. Or it could be someone, we won't know til we find out. Anyway, you know basic wiring jobs." He smugly patted on the crate as Benjamin scoffed.

"Dare I ask what you need rewired?"

"Just see if you can pull up any of the old logs through accessing older built-in software. If this syndicate is smart, they wipe their banks with every shipment, but if we get an origin on the software, it's a start."

Ben began the start of his task while the Doctor continued to scour the nearby landscape. As each fleeting moment dragged on, the more and more he knew that he and Benjamin were not alone. Sure, in the familial sense, neither one was and most likely never would be again once they found Gallifrey, but he meant in that precise moment in the canyon another presence had made itself known. Benjamin called out having had to unfortunately give up his search.

"I'm sorry Doctor, the logs are all cleared and any new software integrated into the system must have wiped the last one completely." The Doctor shrugged it off as he itched the Sonic.

"It's alright Ben, you tried your best-"

"That's a first" his companion cut in, earning a mock glare from the Time Lord.

"Anyway, let's see if we can open the crate itself and figure out what it is in here that's so damn important."

With minimal resistance, both men managed to get the top of the crate opened up and revealed a powder like substance. Maybe it was some kind of spice that meant a lot to the colonists. The Doctor's first reaction was to Sonic it, but stopped himself when he realized his trusty tool wouldn't be scanning the contents of the powder as opposed to setting it off violently, potentially. A quick reconfiguration later and he scanned the contents of the powder. The scans revealed it was a salt of some kind with brown dye. He dipped his left hand into the crate and used his right hand to bring the salt up to his nose. Three sniffs revealed nothing familiar about the scent and he dumped the contents of his right hand before suddenly stopping. He slowly dropped his right hand as he began to feel the other presence from before, this time almost like it was closing in but not quite ready for the kill. As a means of it appearing that the attacker would have the element of surprise, he started small talk with Benjamin.

"Hey Westy, you know how you asked if I had the feeling something's watching us?" Benjamin raised an eyebrow and nodded his head slowly, almost in concern.

"Yeah. Why?" The Doctor slowly returned the look of concern to his friend.

"You're about to get your answer. Like-", he spun around like a top throwing the powder in his left hand to the open air, "so." When he finished, he was staring at an open mouth and teeth all made of stone with an arm protruding just above his now V-shaped left arm.

"Bloody Hell!" was all Benjamin was able to scream out as he fell over backwards onto the ground, yet never taking his eyesight of this mysterious stranger in their midst. There was not even a shadow of a doubt that this monstrosity they had come across was a Weeping Angel, and a pretty angry looking one at that as it sat literally right next to the Doctor with a face that would make a Cyberman terrified. The Doctor, however, managed to remain almost unfazed as he began to put a plan into work mentally speaking.

"Westy, whatever you do. Don't blink." With that warning, the Time Lord began fishing through his pockets in hopes of finding something useful. Without thinking about it, he pulled a six-inch long electronic, hexagonal cylinder out of his pocket that contained Gallifreyan writing on it. Without hesitating, he stuffed the device in the Angel's mouth and moved himself out of its grasp and to the other side of the crate next to Ben.

"Alright, in order for this to work, we cannot allow it to move. Call out if you have to blink, we need at least a twenty yard radius. Slowly move if you have to. Blink."

Benjamin began his pace fairly slowly at first. He knew he was gonna have to follow every instruction given if he was going to make it out of this situation alive. He would call out blink, close his eyes for a full second, then re-focus them on the Angel as he continued backwards. His feet quickened with each passing moment, calling out "Blink" only two more times before he was in the safe zone.

The Doctor had followed suit fairly quickly. He only had to blink just the once as seeing the Angel the first time had taken out more focus than he had initially anticipated. The further and further back he moved, he could feel every muscle in his face begin to tighten as his eyes began to darken. Inside he was feeling all kinds of emotions, mostly based around anger and sadness. This may not have been the exact Angel that had taken Amy and Rory from him, but in his mind at that exact moment, that did not matter. This Angel was a threat, and one he needed to dispose of now.

Once he and Benjamin had cleared the twenty yard radius, he whipped out his Sonic Screwdriver, aimed it at the device and harshly whispered:

"Rest well, Ponds."

With those words, he aggressively pushed down on the button and watched as a blue-ish green light absorbed around the Angel. It had encompassed the entire creature until he began to notice it seemed to almost be fading away. The fading continued as particles of the Angel began to completely vanish off of the stone into thin air. Until it had entirely vanished, he made no effort to change his demeanor from that of a cold, angry man to one of a man who finally found closure for a part of his past. This was something he had noticed when he finally relaxed and noticed Benjamin had never taken an eye off of him since he held the button down.

"Doctor, what the hell was that?" Benjamin asked with conviction.

"A Weeping Angel. The lonely assassins they used to be called-" Benjamin saw right through his attempt to distract him from the answer he wanted and called him out on it.

"Not the Angel, Doctor. What the hell was THAT?" He made his point by literally pointing at the Time Lord. "I know you're not an angry man, so where did that come from?"

The Doctor stared down his companion and felt the rage inside begin to form into regret. He noticed this was now the second time he had killed another sentient being simply because of the threat of its existence. He did his best to remain strong, but his eyes gave him away.

"I don't know, Westy. I guess there's only so much loss a man can take before he shows his true colors. I'm sorry." Benjamin softened his mood.

"You don't have to ask me for forgiveness mate. If anything, you need to forgive yourself like I told you back in the parallel world. If I can ask anything, try to keep your temper in line." With that he lightly snickered. "It's the only thing that reminds me to never cross you." Both Time Lord and companion chuckled as they made their way back to the hover speeder, Ben stopping before he started the vehicle. "Actually, I have never seen technology like that before. What did you use to dispose of the Angel?" The Doctor slowly felt a smile creep up the more he thought of the old relic he luckily found.

"That was an old thing I had left over from the Time War. I've come to call them Time-Disintegrator Bombs. What they do is they analyze the target, or whatever it is attached to and, well, disintegrate it. Then it sends the particles to a destination in time and space. I'm almost terrified to guess how old that bomb is so your guess is as good as mine where the Angel actually wound up."

Right as they were about to take off, they could another speeder in the distance closing in. Not sure if it was the backup Ben called for, they both hid under the seats with Ben drawing his rifle and handing the spare gun to the Doctor. As the second speeder closed in, it drove right past them and stopped at the crate. A somewhat familiar voice was calling out, while a nearly Cockney voice (if he went by Earth context) was responding.

"Where do you think they went?"

"Ehh, the Angel probably got 'em. Good riddance too, we don't really need any more trouble following us around. You should have known better than to cause that ruckus in the town square."

"Oi! I'm not the idiot who let a Weeping Angel off of the ship, Captain Nutcase!"

"One more insult like that and I'm cutting your pay from this little trip."

"Oh please, you should just be glad that I-"

Before one more word could be spoken, both the Doctor and Benjamin had their respective guns pointed at each of the party of two. It had occurred to the Time Lord these two were not very smart adversaries since they clearly underestimated the Doctor and his cleverness. He was almost surprised to discover that the Vinvocci had a hand to play in this. That surprise, however, wore off as he continued to aim the sidearm at the alien's head.

"All right boys" Benjamin called out in a somewhat threatening tone. "Keep your hands up and no one gets hurt."

As if right on cue, several blue government speeders showed up from on top of the cliffside and descended basically right on top of the criminals. Within a full minute, they had been cuffed and hauled onto one of their vehicles. Ben and the Doctor watched over the transgression in a reflective state, while the Doctor seemed more so.

"What are you thinking, mate?" Ben piped up.

"Time for some answers" the Doctor replied.

They began the somewhat short journey back to Alfava with nothing but questions. Questions that would need to be addressed to the criminals and one way or another, the Doctor would get his answers.


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, I'm sorry to keep some of you guys waiting for the next chapter. But first two things of housekeeping, then one other thing.**_

_**1\. In response to Writer215, because this is a FAN film idea, that I will make into a legitimate fan film with actors and a set and a budget etc, I'm not gonna do that thing that some people do where they place an actor/actress in the role of the Doctor, not knowing at all how the hell they would actually approach it. I'm sure some of them are maybe close, but to honest (and realistic), that idea sounds both kind dumb and like it's way too much work. Don't take it personally for all of you who do that, as I'm sure your stories are awesome. But to answer your question finally, the actors for the Thirteenth Doctor and Benjamin Westoff will be whoever gives the best audition, same rule for all the characters.**_

_**2\. In response to JackJen Fan, I'm keeping my mouth shut for right now.**_

**_And Finally,_**

**_I will not give an Author's Note to the next chapter as I don't want it to interrupt the flow of this one into that one. (Yeah yeah yeah, don't give me that "Well, if that's the case, why post Author's Notes to begin with") That and to be honest, when I first started writing Rise of the Valeyard, it was literally the first idea I came up with that I absolutely needed to make sure got in the story (you'll know what I'm talking about when I post it). So I guess I just want to give the one idea that's been there from the beginning the proper respect it deserves. Anyway, I'll see you at Chapter Fourteen,_**

**_Enjoy._**

* * *

Chapter 12

For him to say things were starting to unravel would have been an understatement.

As The Doctor and Benjamin continued to follow the government speeders back to Alfava, hardly a word was spoken. There seemed to be a silent tension building up, but neither one could actually put their finger on where the tension was originating from. All they knew was now they were both discovering something larger than what either one thought the original issue was. The feeling of uncertainly definitely seemed even more unsettling for the both of them as they proceeded back to town, tailing the convoy.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Ben asked.

"That this was way too easy?" The Doctor asked in reply. Ben's subtle nod only left him asking more questions to himself. It also left him wondering what Rose was discovering and how much deeper did the connection between these thugs and the disappearances really go. Furthermore in his thoughts, why wasn't the local government able to stop them or track them? Maybe the whole time it was the Angel and the syndicate was a happy coincidence for them. Hypothesis after hypothesis ran through his mind, all leading back to him needing time with the new prisoners to get his answers.

Upon arriving back in town, the Doctor asked Ben to meet up with Rose and Ramsay while he would go in to have a few questions for the two captives. Benjamin left him with a kind reminder to let him know if they needed to use what the Doctor had dubbed "Good Cop, Bad Cop" as a means of interrogation. With a two finger salute, he left the hover speeder as his companion drove away down the street and he in turn went to find the jail cell.

He found that the citizens of Alfava had adopted a similar law enforcement system to that of Earth's, right down to the jail cell separate from the actual offices. He flashed credentials on his psychic paper to get the captives moved to the interrogation room down the hallway from the cell. He almost came to regret it as he found that he would have to look after the two alone, but there was a soundproof ray shield to keep them from getting out and could only be opened with a keycard that was provided to him by the officer on duty. Not to mention they had seeming been bound to the chairs by their arms and legs. Upon denying the officer's request for assistance, he went back to his office and let the Doctor proceed to talk to the thugs alone.

_What a lousy police system, _he thought. _No wonder they weren't able to stop the Angel before._

Without any more delay, he waltzed into the room with a smile on his face and holding a data-pad containing the names of the criminals and the victims indirectly affected by their blunder. He needed to appear cocky, but well-meaning so when Ben arrived they would be taken off guard by his rough attitude. When the two had done this before, he was always the witty one who would try to get them to straight up talk, while Benjamin would resort to light physical abuse and sometimes even threat of death. Noticing the slight traces of fear that both were doing their absolute best to hide, he realized what would be the best way to crack them open. Do it Sherlock Holmes style, deduce everything and trap them into correcting him.

"Alright, gentlemen. So it seems you're being charged with thirteen counts of kidnapping, one count of possessing illegal substances, two counts of intention to sell illegal substances, two counts of grand theft for said substances, two counts of endangering the public at large, and finally, two counts of being unintelligent assholes, how do you plea?" They both simply kept up their deadpan stare at him as he continued. "Alright, the last one wasn't a real charge, though I'd tack it on now." He tossed the data-pad on the table which didn't quite make the right angle and in turn bounced on to the floor. The Doctor shrugged off his little mess up as he kept trying to look somewhat full of himself but wouldn't appear too arrogant. Keeping up the charade, he pulled up a third chair and sat down leaning against the wall.

"Now, I'll be completely honest with the both of you, I have no reason to be in this room right now. You haven't committed some form of crime against me and I hold no quarrel with either yourselves or your employer. But the one thing that has been bothering me ever since you showed up in the town square, is that you knew about the Weeping Angel but didn't say anything." He focused his pointing from the Vinvocci to the ragtag captain. "Then you mentioned something about the Angel getting loose, thereby implying that at one point you had control of it, even further implying you had magically captured it. My only question though, how in the hell did either of you two thickheads manage to capture a Weeping Angel?"

More silence followed, so far seeming to the Doctor that his strategy seemed to be working in his favor. A little more coaxing and then maybe he would get the solution to the problem these people were enduring.

"But what the hell am I talking about? Clearly, you two weren't the ones who had captured the Angel. You were most likely transporting it for your boss when you got a little curious as to what kind of cargo needed to have someone keep their eye on it at all times. You were probably thinking 'Oh, it's just some dumb statue. What could it possibly do to us?' Well, 'Ha!' I say. Several disappearances later and now you're finally trying to take care of the situation. Nice going. I especially like how several civilians lose loved ones and you don't bat an eye to that, but you lose several crew members, and now you're seeking help from the people you were stealing from. Great moral for the story, really insightful."

He paused his tirade to notice he was making little visible progress from either Catcus-head or One-Eye Creeper as he had dubbed the captives. As a means of having a little bit fun with himself, he contemplated sending an annoying miniature shock to One-Eye's metal eyeplate as maybe some way of getting him to talk. He pulled the Sonic Screwdriver out of his jacket pocket to potentially mess with the duo when he finally noticed he had their attention. He carefully placed it on the table and watched as their eyes would subtly bounce from himself to the Sonic. Deciding to exploit this opening, he completely changed the topic.

"You recognize that device?" he asked, waving to the Screwdriver.

For the first time since he had made himself known in the room, he finally got some kind of response from one of the two. One-Eye had just given him eye contact from staring at the Sonic and simply shook his head. The Doctor's face went smug as he finally realized he had them. Continuing to exploit his opening, he went back to his questioning.

"And that is how I've got you. First lesson gentlemen: never try to outwit a Time Lord, it usually doesn't end well." This got a reaction out of Cactus-Head who made a subtle gulp, and thus boosted the Doctor's confidence even more so. "Now, let's see what we can figure out about you two. You're part of a transport crew for a big syndicate that clearly handles a lot of things, not just smuggling arms or distributing some kind of drug. No, you lot are part of something just as disgusting. I think I'll say human trafficking." Upon a nearly shameful look from Cactus-Head, this only confirmed his suspicion. "Yikes, all of a sudden I'm kind of glad the Angel got those people. At least I know they probably had a chance to die still living a somewhat normal life, not forced into sexual servitude. Yuck!"

He picked up his Sonic and proceeded to pace eerily around the room. Knowing he had their attention was one thing, but knowing they were afraid of him was another thing entirely. Normally, it would bug him to know that his reputation was getting around the universe in a negative fashion, but this was one of those times that knowledge could come in handy. The only thing bothering him at the moment was which angle to approach for breaking them. He obviously didn't want to completely scar them for life, but he needed them weak enough mentally to actually confess to any crimes that they had in fact committed against the colonists. The idea came to him as he proceeded to subtly threaten them.

He stepped out of the room to where all their possessions were placed in a ray-shielded, password protected container. Luckily for him, he just Sonic-ed it and looked through the various items until he pulled out a handgun that appeared to be a hybrid with the design of a Desert Eagle and the barrel design of a .44 Magnum. Hell, he was contemplating keeping it for himself, provided he would be able to sneak it without Benjamin wanting it for himself. That part seemed easy so he brought it back in with him, after engaging the safety. He wasn't holding it in his hand, but he kept it within quick reach and obvious sight for the criminals to know that he was far from messing around anymore.

"So my friends, not only do you collect and transport all types of species to sell for cheap sexual pleasure. Not only do you screw up that job somewhat and endanger entire planets by getting curious about things you've never seen before. But in addition to that, you have the 'cajones' to go around occasionally plunder from those slightly more fortunate than yourselves." He began to show the gun more, almost creeping towards Cactus-Head. "How else would you explain nicking this little antique. It's gotta be at least twenty-seven hundred years old, almost as old as me." He finally saw them both ready to crack as he made his final move. "And if I were a slightly less clever Time Lord, I would not have known that just saying those two words was enough to put you on edge. Therefore, I would never have figured out that you're afraid of me in particular. Well, why not exploit this one more time-"

He was interrupted by a small beeping indicating someone wanting access to the cell block. He sighed as he proceeded to walk down the hallway, feeling like he had been codpiece blocked, but he was instead blocked from accomplishing cracking two thugs. He revealed the door to a stone faced Benjamin who could only gesture to make sure the Doctor followed him. A short stroll lead them to a room that frankly looked more like a morgue than anything, complete with a body in the middle of a steel table.

_Why is there a morgue in a police station? _He quietly thought to himself.

Benjamin sighed and pulled open the top of the bag to reveal Ramsay's cold and lifeless face, much to the Doctor's sudden surprise. He felt nothing but panic course throughout his entire body. Further opening revealed that Ramsay had bruises pretty much all along his body, like he had been killed by several attackers. Several stab wounds that would have been non-lethal were placed all along his torso in the pattern they had seen on the crate in the canyon. Clearly the work of the syndicate. None of his previous wounds proved he would have died, until he re-examined the head. All he had to do was lift the body up a little to see the bullet hole in the back, proving he was murdered execution style.

If this was what had happened to Ramsay, what in the name of sanity was, would be, will be happening to Rose? Had he just gotten her back to now lose her again?

"What happened?" were the only two words he could utter.

Ben silently pulled a data-pad to them containing holographic footage and played it from a spot he had saved. Rose and Ramsay were shown being surrounded by eight thugs drawing guns, including Cactus-Head. After securely cuffing Rose, the thugs proceeded to take turns punching and kicking Ramsay nearly to the point of unconscious. The audio proved difficult in terms of listening to any one particular voice stand out, but that would have proven to make this footage harder to watch. After a full minute of getting pounded on, Cactus-Head had called for the other thugs to stop while he would go so low as to pull a dagger, open Ramsay's chest and even carve the syndicate's insignia on his bare chest. To finish the job, he threw him down, called his flunkies to hold Ramsay on his knees, and used the gun currently in the Doctor's pocket to blow him away while Rose clearly was screaming. He spoke something to the man on his right as he went another direction from the group, presumably towards the Gates to the Dead. The last place that Benjamin let play on the recording was emptiness, besides Ramsay's dead body, and Rose in the background shouting "Doctor, find me!" until he couldn't hear anything at all.

Two tears rolled down his cheeks as he placed head in his hands. Benjamin quickly threw his hand on his friend's shoulder to support him at the moment.

"I'm sorry, mate." The Doctor was now feeling like his heart rate was going up, slow at first when he was watching the footage, but now it was speeding up as all other emotion began to toss itself out the window and make room for nothing but his innermost hatred.

"Yeah" he spoke softly, pulling out his Sonic Screwdriver. "But trust me when I say, they're gonna be sorrier."

With no more words, the Doctor dashed out of the room, changing the Sonic to setting 298E and place a deadlock on the door that only setting 298D could open up. With Benjamin's muffled cries of "No, Doctor! Don't!" as his only conscience, he put away the Sonic, pulled out the gun, and proceeded back to the cell room.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

For a few short minutes, he was numb of everything but his rage.

There was something in the Doctor's movement that seemed almost mechanical. Like he was no longer a Gallifreyan who just so happened to look like a human, now he moved like the very Cybermen and Daleks he had sworn to destory, but that didn't matter. His face remained completely still and void of any feeling as he marched back to the cell with the two prisoners. These men had blood on their hands and he would have been willing to forgive them of their past transgressions towards the colonists. The last straw was the brutal execution of Ramsay and them taking Rose to sell as a sex slave on a market somewhere. Chances are he would find the crew, save Rose, and dispose of them, but how would he be able to track them without any knowledge on where the enemy headquarters lay. There were several ways of obtaining the information, but this time he was not in the mood to play nice.

As he reached the final hallway, he knew at this point he was no longer The Oncoming Storm. This new level of rage made him into a hurricane, a fully realized typhoon of animosity. Any second now, he could feel the screams of anyone who would dare stand in his way. He stared ahead, gun in hand, at his two helpless victims, contemplating the best possible means of making them pay for what they had done. It was almost a shame that the gun only had one bullet left in it for the Vinvocci, but he would have to make due and get creative for how to dispose of the One-Eyed captain. He realized that maybe the metal eye-plate would come in handy for getting his information.

Without hesitation or any form of slow movement, he opened the door and raised his arm, pointing the gun straight at the Vinvocci. Before his victim could finish screaming "No!", he had pulled the trigger and bullet landed right in the middle of his target's forehead. Several spikes flew off as a result of the bullet going right through and landed in several places, one even sticking into the wall. When all was said and done, the Vinvocci was slain sitting upright with his head facing down as light green blood slowly poured out of the wound.

As the Vinvocci sat there dead, the Doctor went up to One-Eye and slammed him face down onto the table. Not quite hard enough to kill him or even knock him out, but with enough force for it to hurt and to know the Doctor meant business. He then took One-Eye's head and shoved his left eye-plate onto the sharpened corner of the table. It wasn't particularly with full brute force, as he needed him alive long enough to get his information, but the captain started to scream louder and higher the more the Doctor forced him into the table, thus pushing the eye-plate further into his skull.

Upon finding a suitable point to where the captain would talk, but wasn't completely comfortable, the Doctor leaned in close to whisper ever so harshly:

"Where. The Hell. Is She?"

There was utter silence, then more screaming as he continued to push the captain's eye-plate into the corner again.

"I'm asking you one last time, you and your comrades have taken someone I love, and thrown her into your nightmare. Tell me where they've taken her. NOW!"

One-Eye was completely panting in panic now, desperate for any means of survival. He finally spoke for the first time since his capture.

"I'll tell you everything" he whimpered as he felt blood begin to slightly trickle down his face, most likely from the first slam. "Just please, don't kill me."

"Start talking." The Doctor demanded.

"We had only meant to stop here to pick up a shipment of a spice that we use in a home-brewed sexual disease cure. It's mostly meant for alien to human interaction. The only problem is on this planet, it used to be the crucial ingredient of a gas bomb, lethal to any within a hundred miles radius."

"Stay on topic, you're trying my patience."

"Blondie and the older man were approaching the loading site, they got a little snoopy trying to get answers about the recent disappearances. When the man found out what we were attempting to smuggle, he tried to get a hold of the authorities. My now dead First Mate rashly stopped him and had a little fun while doing so. We only took the woman as she was witness to him going too far. And about the Angel, my men had accidentally dumped it here to make room for more spice."

"I don't care about the spice or the Angel. Last chance, where's your base?"

"It's on Deltara Metraxis. You'll never get in."

"I have my ways." The captain was growing more concerned about his life as the Time Lord had finally let go of attempting to spear him and began to pace the room slowly and eerily. "And give me one good reason why I should not kill you where you sit."

"I can help you find the other last Time Lord." One-Eye pleaded.

The Doctor, despite his rage, needed some form of time to take in those last words. How were there any other Time Lords in the Fifty-First century? Surely this was some practical joke the captain was pulling to keep himself alive.

"The joke is on you. I AM THE LAST TIME LORD!" Somewhere in his subconscious, he was correcting himself, but his enraged exterior blocked out the memory of saving Gallifrey at the moment.

"NO!" One-Eye cried. "You're not, I can prove it. If you have to probe my memory, just do it. I'll tell you whatever you need."

"Then prove it."

The Doctor made a move to begin going through the captain's memories by placing two fingers on both sides of his temple. As he began to telepathically enter, he noticed that most if not all of One-Eye's initial defenses were being taken down completely, as if he felt that desperate to survive the Doctor's onslaught. The Time Lord almost laughed at his captive's feeble attempt to stay alive. Any form of laughter was instantly replaced with more hatred upon what he was seeing.

The first memory he accessed brought him to Akhaten of all places. A slightly newer, yet slightly less civilized looking Akhaten. The main village market to be precise, standing across from Dor'een's bike rental. He found where the captain and his men were, lying in wait for someone it seemed. When he began to notice a couple blonde locks of hair, he wasn't sure if he was going crazy in his old age, but it almost look like Rose until he got closer. Sneaking a small crowd of citizens, and not realizing he wasn't actually there, he finally got a good look at the face of the woman with the blonde hair. If he wasn't absolutely livid, his jaw would have dropped.

It was his daughter. His Generated Anomaly, the girl he never got the proper chance to be a father to. The girl who, by all means, should have died a very long time ago when she took a bullet for him on Messaline. What was she doing alive and on Akhaten? Furthermore, even if he could believe she was still alive, and had some form of transport in the hopes of finding him again, why was she included in this memory? Unless...

After a sudden feeling of weightlessness, he found himself in another memory. This time on top of a see-through floor, overlooking what looked like the brig of a ship. Below him was his daughter, with her usual green attire and black combat boots, holding a gun pointed at three armed thugs. He had the feeling this wouldn't end well, but for a split second, his anger dropped and he felt so proud of his daughter for trying to take a stand against those who oppressed others. The fury came back when he saw they had shot her then and there. She lay bleeding on the ground as they surrounded her, none of the thugs looking to shoot again. Hell, they almost looked confused as a golden light began to shine around his daughter. He knew what was about to happen, if anything he just couldn't believe it. He never taught her about regeneration so clearly she had a little outside help, and he thanked whoever that was.

For the last memory he found himself on Deltara Metraxis, clearly the base of the enemy HQ. He was watching One-Eye hold a gun to his daughter's back, leading her to what he assumed would be a cell. With a correct assumption, he watched as One-Eye pushed her into her cell and gave her a painful slap across the face when she tried to get up. He finally got a good look at the new her, she had hazel eyes, a slightly more curvy figure, and wavy, dark brown, shoulder-length hair. Again, for the shortest of instants, he felt so immensely proud of her for successfully pulling off a regeneration. Things changed however when he saw the date of the Metraxi calendar system. He noticed it was only five cycles since Jenny had been locked up, or roughly eight days on Earth. He had a legitimate chance to save her on Deltara Metraxis before she would be shipped off to Rassilon knows where and he would have to start from scratch.

At the same time, two completely different emotions began to battle themselves inside of him. It was a battle of hope versus rage, leaving him to feel visibly nothing, but afraid of everything internally. The emotions themselves intensified as the Doctor's memories did a self check of where they would go between these two internal combatants. His rage started to win out as he finally pulled out of One-Eye's memories.

He stumbled back upon letting go of the captain, panting heavily with his eyes shut. A few quietly tense seconds slowly swung by before he opened them to reveal nothing but the darkness. Every negative thing the Doctor had felt, every time he had lost someone, every time he was responsible for lives lost had sprang forward and for this amount of time had consumed his very being. To top it off, his eyes showed nothing but pure, pitch black darkness with no light or color in them anymore. Finally speaking for the first time since entering One-Eye's mind, he spoke in two separate, but synchronized voices. It was almost now like he was simply a vessel for something far more dangerous than even he was.

"Now shall you pay for your crimes."

"No! Please, I told you there was another Time Lord still alive." One-Eye whined. "If you hurry, you can still save her."

"Maybe I can, but who will save you from me?" The Doctor made a move to grab the captain and just finish him off but met some resistance while he squirmed.

"What are you?"

For the shortest of time that he normally had full control of everything, he lost it to himself. The very answer coming from his mouth was not his own words but the words of the darkness currently consuming him.

"The Valeyard."

Were it literally any other time, the Doctor would have stopped right there and realized what he was doing. Any other time and he would have snapped back into reality and bolted the hell out of there, hoping to get away in time before his conscience overtook him. The last thing that normally he would have wanted was anything to do with that dreadful man.

This time, however, he had different plans and more years of pain and anger than he could care to count had engulfed his every action and word. And he would let the captain know that pain.

Without another word, he lifted One-Eye's head off the table and slammed the metal plate into the table at the perfect velocity and angle to puncture right through the skull, making a crunch sound that cut off any attempt at a scream his captive would have made. The captain's body naturally hunched over the table, where a tiny pool of blood began building. The Doctor never noticed this since as soon as it was done, he grabbed the Sonic, tipped in One-Eye's blood, and made his way back to the TARDIS.


	14. Chapter 14

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, Sorry to keep all of you waiting after last week's kind of cliffhanger ending.**_

_**So... how about that last chapter? Okay, two things of housekeeping then we can finally move on.**_

_**1\. This is a dark story, in fairness, what the hell were you expecting?**_

_**2\. Some of you may have noticed that there was an upload of Chapter 13, then a re-upload the following day. I didn't realize that I had accidentally uploaded the original draft of that chapter, which was surprisingly from the first draft of Rise of the Valeyard. As those of you who read that chapter could tell, it was rushed and sloppy as hell. And to those were read that expecting something great after the cliffhanger in Chapter 12, I am sincerely sorry. So please, disregard that BS version if you did read it, go back and read the new one, unless the idea of a pissed off Doctor scares you, and in that case just skip to this one.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 14

If there was a test to see the consequences of one's actions, he would have failed.

As soon as Benjamin had heard the Sonic go off locking him in the morgue, he frantically searched the room for another exit. Luck was on his side as he discovered an emergency exit in the back half of the room that led outside. Upon nearly jumping the three flights of stairs back to the ground, he immediately sought out another entrance, one that was hopefully closer to the prison cell. If luck was on his side, he could potentially stop the Doctor from making a terrible mistake.

Finding a side door that led beneath the offices of the government center, he dashed up the flight of stairs until he was on the level where the cells were located. Thoughts ran haywire in his mind as he tried to piece together what his friend would even contemplate for the criminals, and he shuddered with each new possibility. After re-gaining his bearings from over-worrying, he sprinted through the last three remaining hallways until he found the cell he was looking for. The sight that lay behind the ray-shielded door appalled his very soul.

He opened it to find the Vinvocci seated with a bullet hole in his forehead similar to the one that had claimed Ramsay's life. He figured the Doctor must have used it to give him a slightly ironic death. He then noticed the captain impaled on his own eye-plate. The blood from whom was now spilling off the edge of the table where his head found its final resting. It took all of Benjamin's will power to not be utterly sick, feeling a tear well up and release itself down his cheek. He didn't cry for the loss of two thugs, rather he cried knowing the Doctor did this and that he could have made the choice not to.

Instead of focusing on the thought of potentially losing his best friend, he went to the control panel outside of the cell. Using the data-pad Ramsay had left behind at the scene of his death, Ben accessed the controls to the room and the holographic monitoring to see if his suspicions were actually legitimate. After a minute of searching, he regretted looking in the first place. He almost would have forgiven the Doctor if the two had put up a fight of any sort. This was outright murder, however, a subject that Benjamin was still trying to forgive himself for in his own life. He had to find the Doctor soon, and convince him that what he had done, and what he was probably going to do after seeing the footage, was wrong.

"Oh Doctor" he whispered to himself. "What is happening to you now, mate?"

After quickly transferring the recording onto the data-pad, he made for the main entrance, where he hoped the hover speeder would still be. He was genuinely surprised by the lack of officials currently in the office section. In fairness they were most likely out on patrol, checking nearby areas for any more signs of the syndicate's presence. Amazingly, Ramsay's speeder was still there, and no obvious traps set by anyone. He started up the engines and raced towards the city entrance. En route, he thought to try finding the Doctor with a little help from the radar system, which luckily was just a hands free version of the one he used on his old ship.

"Scan for lifeforms" he told the internal computer.

"Please specify if possible." He was surprised to hear a female voice that frankly almost sounded kind of sexy to him.

"Find any lifeforms with a dual cardiovascular system."

It beeped a signal that was moving in the direction of the TARDIS roughly a mile and a half ahead of him. The beeping continued but the signal had stopped moving, much to Ben's confusion. The Doctor would still have at least another mile to go from where he was to get to the TARDIS. Benjamin put on as much extra speed as the hover speeder could muster, closing in on the Time Lord with all he had.

As he sped off, he was having wave after wave of some of his own dark dealings of death come back to haunt him. He had told himself after what the Doctor had helped him discover that he was a changed man. That with time and enough self-improving he could actually live the life of a new person. Even then he would dream he was back in the scene of a particularly gruesome raid.

His squadron was running low on their credit sticks and needed to find somewhere to make due with some currency and fast. They had arrived on Raxacoricofallapatorius in the middle of a civil conflict, much to the squadron's dismay. Landing their ship in what looked like a peaceful village, the locals seemed nice enough until halfway through re-fueling their ship, a firefight broke out between a family named the Vareen and the local militia. Ben and his squadron attempted to leave without getting involved as their crew had now dwindled from twenty to a mere thirteen after five months on the run. Things went south as soon as they made their move to leave.

It was discovered that the Vareen were actually after the crew themselves. Upon hearing that a bounty was on their heads for what the Sto government treated as acts of terrorism, the Raxacoricofallapatorian family swooped in at the chance for the reward money. They convinced the local militia to join them in return for calling an indefinite cease-fire and a share of the reward money. Once the two had teamed up, Ben was forced to go against his commanding officer's orders to stand down and hold three families hostage as a means of letting them get away.

Even after the squadron was finished with re-fueling, they had to ensure that their escape was still likely and would not be in vein. Benjamin jeopardized that chance unfortunately when an impatient rage led him to kill one of the hostage families and rob them of their credit sticks right as they made it back to the ship. The blasters could not have started shooting fast enough. Dozens of Raxacoricofallapatorians fell to the squadron's more advanced weaponry and tactics while they lost three men in the initial shootout, and had six wounded, two of whom died from infection. At the time, Ben felt no regret as it felt like the necessary thing to do to make sure everyone would have live. He slowly came to regret that decision over time.

A minute had passed by in the moment that seemed to go on for an eternity. He checked the radar again and noticed he was only fifty meters from the Doctor. That didn't seem right, as Ben finally slowed down and couldn't see the Doctor anywhere around the area. His eye caught a black vest and he brought the speeder up to discover the Doctor was laying on the ground.

Hopping out of the speeder, Ben quickly got his friend back on and finished the last mile or so to the TARDIS in record time. Snapping his fingers to open the door, he hauled the Doctor onto his captain's chair and went to the galley to fetch himself something to calm his mind with. His walk was short as the Old Girl had moved the galley close to the console room and he thanked the ship for doing so. Finding a blend of P'n-Tol, a Zocci mix of herbal spices added to water similarly to tea, he sought inner serenity to combat the chaos of the last hour. He sat in a stool as he sipped the refreshment, collecting his thoughts over what had just happened.

The Doctor had unjustly committed murder, there was no doubt about that. Yet from watching the hologram he had seen, he couldn't help but notice something completely obvious. There was something in the Time Lord's behavior and movement that seemed very much unlike him. Almost like for a brief period of time, his body and his thoughts were not his own. Ben didn't blame the Doctor for wanting a little revenge on behalf of Ramsay's execution and Rose's kidnapping, but the Doctor he knew would never take a life willingly. Even then, it would never have been as cold and calculated as he had seen in the projection. Things weren't adding up and he proceeded back to the console room with one last sip of his drink.

The Doctor was beginning to come around as Ben put on an emotionless face, not knowing what to expect. Surprise sort of came from the Time Lord as he looked around, almost confused from being back on his beloved time and space ship.

"How did we get back here?" The Doctor asked.

"How much can you remember?" Ben replied without breaking character.

"What are you talking ab..." The Time Lord's eyes sprang open as he seemed to remember most of the past events of the last hour. "Rose. Jenny. We have to save them. Deltara Metraxis, here we come." Without hesitation, he sprang up and began to input the coordinates he had picked up from One-Eye's memories.

"I hate to point out the Dalek in the room Doctor, but you're forgetting something very important." Benjamin kept a cool level to his voice, but his tone seemed almost harsh. The Doctor feigned surprise, but his eyes gave way to what had truly happened. Yet, he himself seemed conflicted on what he had done himself in the interrogation room.

"No, I'm not Ben. Now come on, we're getting them out of there." He went for the dematerialization lever, but once he pulled up he found the Old Girl uncooperative. When they were stuck in Pete's World it was one thing to not be able to move around all over the universe, but now the TARDIS was saying no and the Doctor did not like that at all. He kept trying to make her fly as Benjamin slammed the data-pad down.

"Yes, you are."

He played the projection all over the console room as the Doctor stared into it. To see that he had in fact killed the Vinvocci and presumably the captain was enough for Ben to catch on that he was potentially going to regret doing that, but he needed his friend back and not this 'Valley' person-whatever that the Doctor was turning into. Once he had gotten to the part where the Doctor was entering the captain's mind, he turned to the Doctor.

"How much after this part do you remember?"

"Not a lot. It's mostly a blur." The Doctor replied coldly. His left arm began to shake as a tear formed up in his left eye. At this point in the projection, the Doctor was hunched over and looking like he was about to explode in anger, which he more or less did. This was the first time Benjamin had noticed the Doctor's blackened eyes and even still-framed to get a proper look at the Doctor at his most menacing. He proceeded playing the footage as he threatened to finish off the captain.

The Doctor felt absolutely petrified at the image that lay ahead of him. What scared him more than the thought of feeling possessed by his own self was was the last line he uttered before impaling the captain. All it took was hearing two words to shut him off emotionally.

"'What are you?'

'The Valeyard.'"

With no more words, the Time Lord bolted out of the console room into the innermost corridors of the TARDIS while Benjamin stayed where he was. He knew that going after his friend was rather pointless at this moment. He knew that he had opened up a can of worms for the Doctor. This was something that he knew would tie into finding an answer for the Cyberman prophecy, regardless of what the Doctor would think.

Speaking of the Time Lord, he was still running down the corridors. Upon hearing the one name he never wanted to hear in his life again uttered from his own mouth, he ran in disbelief hoping to forget he had ever heard the name again. But the image of killing both of the thugs kept re-playing in his head on a constant loop. In addition, he tried to let go of the regret from killing them, but all he felt instead of comfort was his rage slowly returning. He walked into the first room that would open for him. Finding himself in the Zero Room, he locked the door behind him with the Sonic and threw it somewhere he wouldn't find it immediately. The TARDIS darkened the lights in certain corners as he crumpled onto the floor.

"I can't turn into him" he mumbled. He repeated it over and over again as he silently let tears out. Images of the Valeyard he recognized sprang up in his memory. Knowledge of what he knew the Valeyard had done frightened him even more, knowing that he would eventually do the same things. That was what mortified him and left him defeated. If he could have seen outward looking at him, he would have seen his eyes go from regular light green to entirely black in a matter of seconds. In a moment that left him killed inside, he wept until he passed out, helpless to stop his future from happening.

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**_P.S. It lightens up after this, I promise. And this is the end of the "First Act" if you will. Thanks for sticking with me this far through Rise of the Valeyard and can't wait to read what you guys think of the "Second Act" as we dive into that._**


	15. Chapter 15

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, and welcome to the "Second Act" of Rise of the Valeyard. If I'm going to be completely honest, I didn't think I would even get this far in the story. Mostly because I was kinda worried that the ideas were just going to go down the drain and I would lose focus, but thankfully I've been able to keep consistency with the updates and you guys have been the most awesome support for the story. I seriously can not thank everyone who has reviewed, favorited, or clicked follow on RotV enough. Without you guys giving me the support that I enjoy like it's nobody's business, I would not have made it this far. So now that we're past the darkest hour, let's move on with the "official" introduction of another character.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 15

It seemed that even a lone Wolf could find a pack.

The planet Deltara Metraxis was the fourth planet in the Metraxi system. Noted as uninhabitable on the surface, human colonists built an underground prison system beneath the desolate wasteland during the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. Centuries passed and as the Empire gave way to a new, more "civilized" and "Extra-Terrestrial Friendly" society, the prison was eventually abandoned. Smugglers and other criminals commandeered the place in the Forty-Fifth century and began exploring legal businesses from the planet's rich mining potential, while occasionally still doing back-door dealings in arms smuggling and human trafficking. This became more obvious as the Fifty-First century came to be, yet the smart criminals managed to remain kings of their domain, raking in profit of the legal kind and otherwise.

The main underground hub consisted of several districts, ranging from distribution centers of drugs and arms to a mining colony to the slums-like compound. Living establishments were only for those who could afford them, which was more or less anyone who wasn't a slave worker. The syndicate did not allow for outsiders to join unless approval was given by the government officials, who rarely said yes. Corruption was no secret on Deltara Metraxis but they usually kept their business between themselves and their clients with no interference towards a situation that they could not profit from. Only those who were crazy enough to take justice into their own hands on a planetary scale would ever dare cross a group as powerful as the syndicate. Yet one woman seemed to want a crack at it.

Rose Tyler was being escorted by four armed guards into what was dubbed the "Breaking House", a prison for the women that needed to be tamed before being sent out on the black market. The syndicate charged by the hour for pleasurable services provided by the ladies. In her mind's eye, she was hoping the Doctor and her would be long gone by the time they would break her spirit or even send her out. The only thing that did make her sad about the situation already was knowing even if the Doctor came and got her out, there was very little chance that they could actually take down this syndicate completely. At least in a convenient way that didn't require decades' worth of planning and execution. That did force her to close her eyes as she silently let a tear for the poor slaves that had already been part of the syndicate all of their lives.

The four guards arrived at a cell that was both ray-shielded and given a one-foot thick solid vibranium door. Vibranium was one of the most plentiful and strongest metals found in the Metraxis system, used for star ships, prison walls, and any kind of basic fortification. Upon opening the door, one of the thugs pushed her into the cell and activated the ray-shield.

Needing to put on a brave face, she practically jumped to the shield and cried:

"He'll come for me! You don't know what you're up against!" One of the thugs shrugged her off in a cold reply.

"Sorry doll, not even a Dalek could break through these defenses. What makes you think your little boyfriend has even a chance?" Silently, he activated the vibranium door to shut, causing Rose to jump back. Once she let her tough attitude down, she began to take careful observations of the room around her.

Only one light hung from the eight meter ceiling and only lit up roughly a third of the cell. Granted it was a fairly large cell, as Rose guessed it was somewhere around a ten meter perimeter, with two dark corners of the room one could easily hide something in. There was a latrine, doubtfully well maintained, and two beds with a steel frame in the form of bunk beds. If Rose was still as old as she was when she first travelled with the Doctor, she almost wouldn't have minded the latter part, but these days she preferred having a bed to herself in her own room. On the top bunk, she noticed brown, wavy hair dangle as if the person in her cell was asleep. Not really in the mood for small talk with anyone, she simply laid down on the bed and re-assured herself the Doctor was going to come and rescue her, a little more loudly than she intended.

"It's a nice thought, but you should probably be realistic" a voice called from above. "I'm rather clever, but even I would have a hard time getting past this lot, let alone counting on someone else for help."

"Thanks" Rose replied. "Not exactly sure I'm in the mood for a chin wag."

"Suit yourself. I've been stuck in here for five days without someone to talk to and frankly I think it would be just the thing to calm you down before they haul you off to God knows where."

Rose had to smirk a little at the girl's attempt to sound comforting, even if it did sound straight up cynical.

"So, you gonna at least tell me your name?" the girl inquired.

"I'm Rose Tyler of Earth. And you?"

The girl hopped down off of the bunk, standing in front of Rose. Rose noticed this girl looked at most only three or five years her junior, but almost like the Doctor, her eyes made her older. She was wearing a light brown leather jacket with a green T-shirt underneath, then black cargo pants and combat boots to finish her attire. This girl definitely seemed like she was out of place, given that she was prisoner of this syndicate. In fact the girl was almost reminding her of her first Doctor and his simple look.

"I'm Jenny from Messaline, though for some reason my step-mum calls me her Jen-erated Anomaly." The blonde took a moment to analyze the odd nickname, and Jenny just shrugged off the look of confusion forming on her face.

"What did they capture you for?" Rose inquired, somewhat interesting her new cell mate.

"I'll be honest, I don't know" the girl responded. "I was just minding my own business on Akhaten when I recognized the symbol on the ship as one that had caused havoc on a planet I had dropped by two years ago. I did a little investigation but before I could ask one of the crew if they knew anything about the incident, they saw my gun I had in my pocket and just tossed me in with the rest. The gun wasn't even loaded, it's just for show. To keep people like these twats from getting funny ideas." Rose smiled, already admiring how much this girl was reminding her of herself when she was that age. "That and my dad taught how me that I could always make a choice", the brunette continued, "so I choose to use the weapon as a last ditch effort to frighten people who cause trouble, but never pull the trigger." The girl smiled sadly, remembering the last time she saw her dad nearly eighteen years ago. "Enough about me though, how did you wind up here?"

"It's actually kinda similar to your own. I was with my..." Rose had to stop to contemplate what she and the Doctor were. They had more or less decided to just be together, but no official title was given to their love. "With the man I love and our friend on Alfava Metraxis, investigating random disappearances we thought the syndicate was behind. Our guide and myself were speaking to the victims' families when we stumbled upon them with a shipment of illegal spices. They didn't want to blow their cover, so they unfortunately left no witnesses. They even executed our guide right in front of me." The girl cringed as Rose started sounding a little more sad with her tale. "Then they just took me and gave me some kind of drug to put me under. Next thing I know I'm being led out of the ship and into here."

"I'm sorry" Jenny whispered as the blonde wiped a tear that was quickly escaping.

"Yeah, me too." Rose mumbled, but quickly brought a smile of hope on her face as she tried looking brave in front of the younger girl. "But let me tell you something Jenny. This lot won't know what hit 'em when he comes for me."

"Your boyfriend?" Jenny asked, sarcastic yet hopeful to a nod from Rose.

"Oh yes. If he's quick enough, he'll get us out of here and back to your step-mum and father before you can say 'Messaline'. Unless you're up for a quick trip or two, assuming you don't mind the running. Seriously, it's an awful lot of running involved." Jenny chuckled as she remembered a certain redhead saying something similar about her father.

"He sounds like my dad. At least that's what my aunt Donna told me."

Rose nearly froze at the mention of the name. Could she be possibly talking about the Donna that traveled with the Doctor? She never knew Donna's family outside of her mum and grandfather, but one thing she learned from traveling with the Doctor was that damn near anything was possible. She needed answers to the questions in her head and she needed them soon.

"Jenny, what can you tell me about your dad?" The young brunette had to think as she had no idea of what to say, simply because she had very little to say.

"I can't tell you much, the only thing I really know is that his name is the Doctor and he's a Time Lord."

"You're kidding me" Rose gasped.

"Nope, why are you..." Jenny's eyes opened the widest she had ever felt them open as her heart began to race at the possibility of finding her father again. "Are you with my father? Is he really coming?"

Rose beamed as she gave the young girl one of the tightest hugs she had given in years, to someone other than the Doctor of course. Inside, she felt crushed knowing one of the Doctor's children was still alive and he didn't know it. This made her wish that somehow he would just hurry up and find them and maybe all three of them could feel happier than they had collectively been. Not a usual setup for a family, but one that she would take if it meant she was with the Doctor and she could act as a mother figure to Jenny.

"Just you wait Jenny, he'll figure out where we are and he'll come running in that beautiful ship of his. Then we'll go off and fly through time and space. Anywhere you want to go, he'll take you there, and we'll all be together."

"I would love that" Jenny responded slightly muffled, as she was holding onto Rose so tight that her face was buried on Rose's shoulder. Rose continued to hold her as she could actually feel Jenny's tears slide onto her jacket. The crying seemed more than warranted, as she seemed like she had completely given up hope of ever seeing her dad again. Rose even let another tear loose as she realized that she had not only restored her own hope, but had given new life and aspiration to a girl that she would happily call her own.

The only thought there was what the hell was her own mother gonna say when she and the Doctor came back with her. She could almost feel the slap that was gonna come his way. Not realizing she was laughing out loud from the thought, she failed to noticed Jenny started laughing through her tears of joy. The two continued to laugh through their jubilation until they calmed and sat on the bottom bunk.

"So Jenny, is there anything you want to ask me about your father?" Rose asked, wiping one last tear away.

"I don't know where to begin. I suppose I should ask, has he changed?" Rose nodded sadly as Jenny showed immediate disappointment, but recovered quickly enough to start asking other things about the Doctor.

"How about I tell you how I met him. And it is an incredible story."

She proceeded to tell Jenny about her life on Earth and how one night in the shop changed her life forever. In turn, Jenny told her about her being created from a machine, much to Rose's surprise that Jenny had no actual mother. She also spoke of how she took a bullet for the Doctor and was unfortunately left behind. Rose fumed at the idea of him leaving her behind like that, but at the same time she understood this was after he had lost her and knowing him, the pain would have been too much for him to go back. Wanting to lose her frustration, she brought the conversation back to her own adventures with the Time Lord.

Everything from seeing the end of her home planet to where they were less than a day ago was told like it had happened yesterday for her. She spared almost no detail trying to get her new step-daughter to understand the complex personalities of her father's regenerations, from the sassy one of her first Doctor to the overprotective one that followed and even the sarcastic yet loving one she went back home with. Jenny cracked up whenever Rose would mention Captain Jack mercilessly hitting on the Doctor and started crying when Bad Wolf Bay was brought up. Around the point of Rose talking about meeting up back in Canary Wharf, Jenny was starting to drift off, even shutting her eyes. Rose saw no point in continuing the story and simply laid the young brunette down, climbed up into the top bunk and quickly fell asleep.

For the first time in a very long time, Jenny was filled with nothing but happiness and hope. Maybe, just maybe, she would finally find her dad and get the life he had promised her back on Messaline. A life with him and her new step-mother that, to her anyway, sounded almost too perfect.


	16. Chapter 16

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, good Jesus I never thought I'd be able to finish this chapter. Between the last one and this one, I got myself a new job (that makes three part-time jobs now, FML), and I have a guest from out of town for the next couple weeks. So I'm going to at least try and get around to continuing the story, even if it takes a while. Plus after this scene, I'm finally going to be able to get around to the other idea I've had since the beginning of working on **__**Rise of the Valeyard**__**. But that's enough of me bitching to justify being lazy-ish.**_

_**Enjoy.**_

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Chapter 16

Even when the fire of hope is extinguished, it always finds a way to re-kindle.

She had found herself sleeping somewhat decently for laying on a cold, metal bunk. The simple fact that Rose Tyler had found the beginnings of a new family in a dreary cell had warmed her heart to gather decent rest.

Without waking the brunette still sleeping beneath her, the blonde peered over the the side to reveal Jenny still sleeping peacefully. The girl almost looked like she was smiling in turn bearing a grin on her own face. From the long talks the two engaged in the night before, Rose found it sweet and surprising that Jenny seemed to act like herself with eerily similar quirks, including an odd yet very applicable knowledge of gymnastics. For a split second, she almost wished that Jenny would just start calling her "mum" and she would just accept it. Realizing how insane that sounded, she brought herself back to thinking she still needed time to warm up to the idea but wasn't unwilling to be a mother figure to the young brunette.

Looking at her features and attire reminded her even more so of the Doctor. Not so much the one who wore a leather jacket or the pinstripe suit, but rather the one that she was still getting to know and was more than happy to continue exploring. The jacket seemed like something the current Doctor would have recommended as well as the odd color choice. It seemed fair to say since like father like daughter, neither one seemed to really know how fashion worked.

This made her chuckle inwardly, harkening back to her days as a simple shop girl back in London. Those seemed to be the days; before the craziness, before the adventures, before the most magical word in the English language. "Run". And now, that previous life seemed like a bad memory compared to the world out there. A world she wanted and needed to get back to like it was coming home.

She slowly watched Jenny wake up as the girl had almost tomboy-ish approach to getting up, complete with a yawn that she almost sang in a chord. Both shared a quick smile as Rose hopped off the top bunk, noticing what appeared to be a basic meal in two trays laying on the floor. She wondered how silverware still seemed to exist in the Fifty-First Century as she and Jenny both dabbled into the food provided. The biggest shock to both of them seemed to be that the food itself wasn't half bad. At least this syndicate managed to take decent care of its workers, even if they weren't exactly being compensated well. As they ate, they continued getting to know each other, learning little things about each other in a way that only a parent and child could actually learn from each other.

Finishing their meal, the two went on to discussing different methods of self defense. Rose had been taught in several Asian-influenced styles learned on Earth, but this fascinated Jenny as she had learned similar techniques that only evolved over the course of three thousand years. Both were able to teach something unique to the other as they partook in short sparring sessions. Each one found advantages over the other as they began mixing the training they had already received and the new styles they were picking up through their bonding.

Speaking of their bonding, Rose found it immensely odd and amazing how quickly both herself and Jenny were getting along. Maybe if she were with the Doctor when he went to Messaline, who knows if maybe her genetic code would have also found its way into Jenny's DNA. Maybe then Jenny would have had a proper mother. That sounded ridiculous in her head, but so did the idea of actually being in a cell with her Doctor's own daughter learning futuristic self defense and being more than willing to take the young girl in as her own so quickly. One more sparring session later and the two had to relax and simply enjoy a perfect moment, despite the current situation and setting.

The only inconvenience came when six guards approached the cell and opened the door. Had they not been so heavily armed and most likely well trained, Rose and Jenny would have at least contemplated the notion of taking them on. And likely would have won. One of the guards was carrying a simple two-piece black skirt and top with a silver lining along both sides of the clothing. Four of the guards pointed their guns straight at the prisoners while the other two had a quick and quiet dialogue the rest couldn't even hear. After both set their eyes on Jenny, Rose knew instantly what was going to happen. Before she could make any form of protest however, Jenny simply complied. Both shared a quick look of understanding as Rose was forced to just sit on the bottom bunk while her new step-daughter took the clothing and walked over to one of the darkened corners of the room to quickly change.

Neither one could see each other's face while Jenny was in the dark completely, but neither one needed to know the heartbreak they were feeling. To have come so close and now have so far to go before any form of happiness could come around for them. Several minutes later, Jenny re-emerged into the light part of the room in the part of an obvious slave girl outfit. One of the guards practically ripped Jenny's clothes out of her hands and threw them at Rose, while another grabbed her arm and began leading her out of the room with the rest following behind.

"Jenny" Rose cried out. "Just know as soon as your father gets here, we're coming for you." Both could only feel tears building up as the guards continued towards the door, which had to be re-opened.

"I believe you" Jenny responded, never breaking eye contact with Rose. "Mum." With that they lead her out of the cell and Rose attempted to rush the door only for the ray-shield to reactivate. She broke down and sobbed on the floor. How could the universe have torn her new family apart so quickly? Why were there always complications in being with the man she loved? When would any of the three of them ever get a break? She wept with such intensity, she forced herself to try and sleep off this nightmare of reality.

With hardly any energy left to care, she practically dragged herself back to the bunk where only two hours prior, she and her new step-daughter were happy, despite the setting. Now even she was gone, about to do God knows what in God knows where, possibly to never be seen again. She didn't know how this syndicate worked and for all she knew, the client would probably do something so drastic she'd regenerate then have to start from scratch all over again. She put her head in her hands to try and focus on a plan for when and if the Doctor would ever find her. Rose almost found herself contemplating what the hell would be the point now that Jenny was gone again.

A sudden chill made itself known in the room as Rose hugged herself, almost getting the feeling that maybe she wasn't alone.

"It's a shame that happened like it did" a voice called out. Rose jumped from surprise, trying to figure out where the voice originated from and if it was possible to identify it as friend or foe. She secretly hoped for the latter just to take out her newfound anger towards what had just happened. The voice continued, "But even the hopeful and compassionate Rose Tyler should know that there is always a way, even if it requires a little cheating."

"Who are you?" Rose asked, reddened eyes darting all around the room. "How do you know my name? And what are you talking about?"

"I'm an old friend of the Doctor's, and an old friend of yours by extension. Let me ask you something, if I may Rose Tyler. How do you feel about fate or destiny?"

"Listen up you bastard I'm not in the mood for games! Are you trying to help me or not?" She snapped, almost taken aback by how quickly she found herself overreacting. The voice chuckled in a near robotic quality.

"Ahh, still like the Rose Tyler of old. Always quick with the tongue and slow on realizing when to ask the right question." Normally, Rose would have probably just continued to scan the room and figure out of the source of the voice then make a move to bring it to light. This time seemed different, almost like she knew whoever this was was really just testing her. She took a deep breath and slowly, quietly exhaled.

"What can you offer to help me find Jenny?"

"Patience, dear Rose. I will help you find her if you answer my question please." Rose had to clench her fist, knowing that whatever this was might possibly be a trap of someone just trying to get to the Doctor. Why was this guy playing games when a life she was worried about was being more endangered by the minute?

"I'm not against it" she finally answered as she gritted her teeth. "but hopefully you know that you're capable of making your own decisions as well."

The sound of something sliding across the floor gave her temporary satisfaction. It was a data-pad with coordinates and a time on it, presumably meant for when to arrive in the TARDIS.

"Fair enough." The voice seemed almost more harsh, like it was giving a warning. "It's likely you won't come across me anytime soon so it would seem I must play my part in the grand scheme of things. In return for the help, all I ask of you is one thing." Rose's eyes darkened as she could have sworn she saw a shape hiding in the darkened corner of the room.

"And what is that?" She hissed.

"When the time is right, ask your precious Doctor how he died. You'd be amazed how many questions can answered with the one." There was an unsettling quiet for a moment that nearly brought Rose to a fit of anger as the voice continued in what almost seemed like poetry of some dark, twisted kind. "All intertwining and all separate, the men split apart are whole again. From death born and from trial known, one is the other, but the other is not him."

Rose couldn't put her finger on why this mysterious stranger was so frightening, but simply the way he said his little soliloquy was more than enough for her to realize that the Doctor and herself were only at the beginning of a very deep rabbit hole. She feared for what this stranger wanted from either herself or the Time Lord.

"What do you want from him?"

"It's not a matter of what I want. Rather it is a matter of fulfilling my role in the story of life that is constantly written and re-written throughout time and space. Don't forget to take the data-pad with you. And Rose Tyler, one last thing."

"What?" She whispered. The voice now almost sounded kind.

"You may want to move over two meters. Just in case."

She surprisingly listened as she made a move to grab Jenny's jacket, shirt, boots, and pants. Holding her step-daughter's personal belongings to her, she began to feel something almost like a wind blowing in her hair. She let a tear out as she began to hear a sound that she came to find out was really just the brakes left on. The closer and closer the TARDIS came to dematerializing, the more and more she kicked herself mentally speaking and wanted to almost slap the Doctor for being too late to save both herself and Jenny. As the little blue box started to solidify, she called out to the empty room.

"Why are you helping us?" Not expecting an actual response, she was startled by a simple statement.

"Because you have forgotten the one thing you taught the Doctor. That maybe, just maybe, you can give a second chance, even to those who may not deserve it."

Before anymore was said, the doors opened and Rose practically threw herself into the blue police box. The doors closed and almost instantly the revving of the engines began, taking the ship to new destinations. Inside the previously thought to be empty room, the voice finished his final thought.

"Or maybe, I just wanted to see you both one last time."

With no more words, all that was heard in the room were a couple of footsteps and the sound of a door shutting.


	17. Chapter 17

**_A/N: Hello FanFiction,_**

**_Yes I'm sure some of you are wondering several big important questions like:  
_****_Who was the guy in the shadows?  
_****_Will Jenny ever be reunited with her father, or will more stuff just get in the way?  
_****_(My personal favorite) Say, isn't the Doctor a part of this story too?_**

**_Yes, I suppose two chapters that don't actually have the Doctor in them is sort of strange seeing as how (for the most part, minus some important supporting character development) the focus has been on the Doctor. Well, I meant to tell all of Chapters 15 and 16 in one, but I decided 'screw it' and made it two so I could flesh out the relationship a little bit better. Anyways, time to get back to the main focus of the story and hopefully the Doctor can figure out what's going on with some more clarity._**

**_Enjoy._**

* * *

Chapter 17

For better or for worse, he was going to have to fight through his changes.

In a moment that seemed to stretch time itself, consciousness slowly sprang him to life. With the awakening came an unfortunate sense of dread from seeing the footage the day beforehand. To say if left him feeling morose was almost an understatement. Withholding the fact that this syndicate had not only killed an innocent civilian, kidnapped Rose, and were holding his daughter Rassilon knows where, he still gave his all in reasoning with himself the end of their lives in the cruel way he had seen in the projection. Despite having failed to find reason with himself, he came to slowly accept his mistake and maybe with enough time past, he too would move on like he had so many times before.

The one aspect about the projection he found himself still in denial about was him saying he was "The Valeyard". He was still the Doctor, wasn't he? If anything, he rewrote his history with that horrid man upon sending John to live with Rose in Pete's World, right? Timeline-wise it almost made too much sense, given that John was more or less "an amalgamation of the darker sides of his nature created between his twelfth and final incarnation." Technically speaking, Chinny was supposed to be the last one, unless that was the big mistake all along. Maybe John was supposed to be the Valeyard the whole time, and now since the Doctor undid that chance he jeopardized rewriting his history and now the Valeyard would actually be him.

However in his mind, that made absolutely no sense. As he understood it, the Valeyard was him but he was not the Valeyard. An equal, but still separate entity of the Time Lord. Then again, John had no regenerations so how would he have come by the face the Doctor recognized in the courtroom. All of these questions kept repeating without even an attempt for a decently thought-provoking answer. Maybe this was something that John would be able to help him with once he knew Rose and Jenny were safe.

He tried making a move to bring his hand up to his hair when he all too quickly realized that he couldn't move his hand. Finally opening his eyes, he realized he was in his dream from before again. Maybe this was somehow tied into his changing, it had to somehow connect and he would uncover this unspoken conspiracy of his subconscious.

The only difference between this dream and the ones before was the liveliness of his environment. Now he was able to actually see past the light from before and make out some more of the room. The Doctor remained unable to make out most of the forms from before yet here he could tell that whatever this was seemed to constantly be moving around. The pattern of motion seemed almost robotic, but there was still some grace in the movement of those around him. The only thing he dreaded upon his return was that creepy robotic voice that seemed to mark his progression.

"Consciousness at seventy eight percent. Memory download at forty six percent."

The more he pondered over the last two dreams, the more he began to wish this was his actual reality instead of whatever the last three days was. Sure it seemed like a nice fantasy complete with a shot at happiness, but in honesty, it felt so real it had to be fake.

He learned the hard way already, for the better or for worse, this was in fact the dream. Any moment now that eerie voice would cut in again, wake him up, and jolt him back to the land of the living. This time he knew he needed some form of detail that he could latch onto in hopes of solving this mind-blowing puzzle. His eye caught the attention of what looked like Cybermats scuttling away from the top of a desk. It wasn't much but it would have to do as the voice did in fact cut in again,

"Disconnecting in five, four, three, two, one-"

He threw himself into an upright position as he checked to make sure he was still in the Zero Room. Everything looked right, minus the fact that the whole room was lit up, but that was probably the TARDIS's way of making sure he found both his Sonic Screwdriver and the exit. Without a lot of hesitation, he hoisted himself off the surprisingly soft floor, grabbed his trusty tool, and made his way out toward the console room.

A quick distraction came when he smelled himself unintentionally. Realizing a shower would most likely be needed, as well as relaxing, he instead turned his attention to finding his room. Wasting no time undressing upon arrival, he turned his faucet on and somehow the TARDIS managed to bring him the water at the exact temperature he wanted it at.

He attempted to calm his mind from the events of however long it had been since the interrogation room, realizing that time passed hadn't even crossed his mind from waking up in the Zero Room. He thought of the image frozen on him when he had become "The Valeyard". It was a rarity that Gallifreyans would ever become so enraged that they lost all color in their eyes. He tried to recollect if that had happened on Gallifrey and he was actually there to witness it. Nearly a minute had passed bearing no fruit to a memory.

This only egged him on more as he slammed the wall with his fist and the TARDIS retaliated, nearly burning his skin with simmering hot water for a brief second. Noticing that she wanted to throw her two cents in, the light pattern seemed to indicate while she herself had little to offer for an answer but gave him comfort instead. Comfort that seemed well needed as he let two tears fall down his cheek quickly.

He could justify how he had taken the life of the Cyberman back on Pete's World. Hell, he even managed to let go of any regret from taking the life of the Weeping Angel as there was no other solution that seemed viable to stopping it. He shut off the faucet as he simply tried to find a way to explain to Rose and Jenny what he had done, dreading the response either one would give him. Doing his best to push it off, he focused instead on washing himself clean. Funny enough, it was almost like he was cleansing himself of the crime he had committed, the attempt being futile of course. Finally finishing cleaning everything, he dried off quickly and reset his hair to how he had it after he regenerated.

Noticing his clothes still had some blood stains on them, he threw on the robe he had picked up from the Christmas he had spent with Rose and walked with a forced smile to the wardrobe. It was rare that he changed attire so soon after regenerating, given that once he found his taste he stuck to it. Maybe if the TARDIS was feeling generous, she would have a spare purple button-up and black vest ready for him. Anything to get his mind off of the last day was much needed, even if it was something as simple as clothes.

He discovered similar shoes next to a pair of almost identical gray-black jeans. As he dressed the bottom half of his body, he began to stroll through his seemingly never ending wardrobe in hopes of finding duplicates of his shirt and vest. Coming across some old favorites like his jacket he wore back in his Fourth life, the question mark umbrella, and even the rainbow vomit of a coat he proudly wore the first time he heard of the Valeyard, he started feeling almost sadly nostalgic.

Finally spotting a black vest and a long sleeve button up that was more maroon than purple, he threw them on, tucked the shirt in, and walked out petting the wall of his beloved ship.

"Thanks Old Girl" he quietly spoke as he continued toward the console room.

A short walk later revealed the console room empty. Save for his jacket, which somehow made its way onto the console itself, making him realize Ben must have went back to the speeder and brought it in. He mentally nudged himself to say thanks for that small action. Grabbing his jacket off of the console, he froze in the middle of putting it on when Benjamin himself walked into the console room.

Both men just gave a look of understanding. The Doctor's eyes told volumes of how sorry he was for what had happened in the interrogation room, and Ben gave the acknowledgement that maybe he went too far in trying to slow down the Doctor's plan. The Time Lord waved his friend to him as he began divulging his plan.

"Alright, I'm going to show you this once." He walked Ben over to a set of green-ish blue knobs. "These, when engaged simultaneously, will trigger an emergency protocol that dematerializes into the Time Vortex wherever we are. It's also great for ensuring a quick escape. You are not to engage them until I know that both Rose and Jenny are safe on board, alright?" Benjamin wasted no time in simply nodding his response.

With no more words, the Doctor checked his coordinates to see if they had changed. He was beyond delighted to see no such change had occurred. Most of the happiness was probably from the mere thought of seeing his daughter still alive, not even trying to guess how she properly learned how to regenerate. That aside he checked all systems and noticed it was a go.

Bearing an almost manic smile, he pulled down the materialization lever and yanked it back up. The sound his beautiful shape made was there this time as he and Ben prepared for what would be a fast pickup. The flight itself was relatively short as he stood by the doorway, ready to help both Rose and Jenny in as quickly as he could. Benjamin hadn't moved from his spot by the Vortex knobs, calculating the timing his duty required.

Finally feeling the thud of the landing, the Doctor snapped his fingers open to reveal Rose holding a handful of clothes and a data-pad with tear stains in her eyes. When they saw each other, she simply balled up the data-pad in the clothing, chucked it in a random direction and ran straight to the Doctor's arms. She practically screamed for Benjamin to just go and with a nod from the Doctor, Ben pulled the two knobs to engage the Vortex protocol.

The Time Lord was left feeling confused. Had he messed up the coordinates again or had something happened and he was too late to change things, lest a paradox occurred. He needed answers but knew Rose was in little state for him to act angrily about this.

"What happened?"

"They took her," she replied in a steady tone but gave him a look like she was ready to slap him. "They took her and your timing couldn't possibly have been worse. I've got the coordinates on here but I don't know where to go from there." She pulled the data-pad out to reveal the a place that didn't ring any bells for the Doctor. They both made their way to the monitor and did their best to follow up on this new information. The Doctor was half surprised to see the location of their destination.

"We're going to Sto."

Ben perked his ears up at that revelation. In the six months he had travelled with the Doctor, he had never once made any mention about returning home partially due to his status as a fugitive. What were the odds that two thousand years in the future would rectify and or forget his past crimes? Upon taking the data-pad from the Doctor, he realized almost instantly that he himself would have to get Jenny out if she really was there. That particular section of the planet was not too far from his hometown and while the city itself looked like a nice place where opportunity was plenty, it was in reality a criminal world gold mine. If this syndicate was this far reaching, they would be working with the higher-ups and would demand a high price for a specimen so rare.

The only issues would be a proper disguise and money. Luckily having been in the wardrobe on several occasions, he was sure to come across something that could make him look like he was off-world royalty. Financing would be another simple fix. He knew the Doctor kept a credit stick that was infinite and thank the Mother Goddess it was real, but he didn't know where it was kept. Figuring the Doctor was going to have a coronary twice over the idea of Rose going down there was also another convincing point for him and him alone to undertake the task.

"I'll go down." He finally spoke, after nearly a minute of debating his options mentally. The Doctor, not surprisingly, looked at him like he grew a second head. Benjamin continued his elaboration anyway.

"I know what you're thinking Doctor. Why would I risk my cover to go back and get arrested or put on trial or whatever while you save your daughter's life. I'm going to answer this simply, so listen well. I know every detail, protocol, and etiquette for how the syndicate's 'industry' works. All I need is a credit stick and a false identification verifying I'm from this time. I know for a fact you don't know everything about goons like these. Lest you forget mate, I was just as much one of them and I have not forgotten one thing about that life. You can try going down there and it will be a bloodbath. I go down there and no one gets hurt, my cover isn't blown, and your daughter comes home safe and sound. Try and stop me if you will but you know it's your best option."

The Doctor froze where he was soaking in all of his companion's words. He knew from the look Rose was giving him that she was trusting of Ben's plan, even if there was still a risk to it. He wanted to argue otherwise, but after the events of the last couple of days, maybe he did need to let someone else do a job this dangerous. The last thing he wanted was risking another killing spree at his own hands. Without questioning, he reached into his upper left jacket pocket to reveal his psychic paper and presented it to Benjamin. Finally inputting the coordinates into his ship's navigation system, he checked the other systems and pulled the dematerialization lever.

Benjamin immediately made for the wardrobe, leaving the Doctor and Rose to ponder the events unfolding before them. Rose brought the Doctor's face to line up with hers.

"You trust him, don't you?" He held her to him with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Yeah, I just wish there was another way to make it happen." He sighed. "I just wish I was there sooner."

"Your mistake aside, I think he's qualified." Rose quickly brought his attention back to her eyes, anticipating several different results of what was about to come out of her mouth. "I wouldn't ask anyone else to help us find our daughter."

The Time Lord's eyes nearly bulged of his sockets from the declaration. This made him quickly wonder how close she and Jenny must have gotten from their time together in the cell. Unsure if that meant he had a family, he jumped at the thought of it and took her in for a passionate snog. She didn't hold back as the two hugged tightly, seeming unbelievably happy.

Benjamin returned in attire that seemed from a hybrid of Nineteen-Fifties Las Vegas-era and Thirty-First Century Sto. On second glance, it was exactly what he had tried wearing when him and the Doctor were going to sneak into the Tyler Mansion, accessories included this time. Rose immediately starting giggling at the absurdity, knowing she had been in just as many odd fashion statements in her travels with the man she loved. The Doctor knew that he had to stand out while blending in and this would be the way to do it, even if it did mean laughing at him too. Finally he pulled out his credit stick and an earpiece that acted as a homing beacon and gave the items to his friend.

"Safe and sound?" The Time Lord asked, still uncertain about the situation. Benjamin quickly stored the credit stick somewhere safe, placed his small gun in side trouser pocket, and snuck the earpiece in as he made his way to the door.

"Relax mate, she'll be home within the hour. It's me we're talking about." With that, he opened and shut the door as he practically jumped out of the doorway. The Doctor gave one look to Rose with slight concern.

"That's what I'm worried about."


	18. Chapter 18

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, and welcome back to a long awaited delay in my story Rise of the Valeyard. I have no excuse as to why it took so long (almost five months if I'm not mistaken) for me to get back to working on this story. But for those of you who have been waiting patiently, I hope I satisfy you and reassure you now that my writer's block (which admittedly was part of the reason) will not hinder me from making more chapters that continue this story. And hell, since I'm being overly sappy (as I write this) Merry Christmas 2015 and a happy New Year!**_

_**Enjoy, since you've all been waiting long enough!**_

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Chapter 18

The only test he needed to overcome was the one he had created in his own mind.

The metropolis known as Nos Minitia was a city-state on the Peninsula of Pol T'n, a U-shaped land mass along the Southern Hemisphere of the planet Sto. Initially a small spaceport for human colonies to begin their journey, the city had been built over the course of nearly fifteen hundred years (and still going) to meet with the increase of labor demands. Most of the buildings needed to keep up the support would be built over hundreds of stories in the air. In short, Nos Minitia was the place to start a life with a popluation of nearly seventy eight million people, rich and poor alike. It was in this dense atmosphere that if one needed to blend in, one could provided he fit the status quo. Unlike most of the other continents, Pol T'n was a mostly human colony with most of the Zocci population either eradicated or relocated to other lands.

_Two thousand years and still nothing's changed,_ thought an aware but quiet Ben. He had picked up a cab to a highly praised lodging establishment right in the heart of the seventy-fifth level. He had followed a clue after seeing a ship with the Syndicate's mark land on the docking bay beneath the hotel. For him there was almost no better place to start. With not even a smile for the almost convincing cyborg who had driven him, he paid his fee with the credit stick and began towards the main entrance. His mind raced with remembering protocol and worry about how long he would have to rescue Jenny.

Luckily, the hour he had promised the Doctor had only been twenty five minutes in real time. Time was not a huge issue for Benjamin, but he knew that as long as Jenny was being held by the Syndicate, every minute could mean she would be bought by another customer and they would have to start over. With a confident step and a stoic expression he approached the desk of his lodging, with an elderly gentleman greeting him.

"Hello sir. Have you made a reservation?"

"Yes, I have." With his response, Benjamin pulled out the psychic paper, thanking the Mother Goddess the material had not made itself known on his planet even by this time. "And I should like some simple amenities."

"Of course, sir" replied the host. "Anything else I can do for you?"

"Yes." With a quick hand signal towards the host, in the form of a code he had learned. "What is there for entertainment in these parts?"

The host hesitated, almost confused. Yet with Benjamin unrelenting, the host's expression seemed to turn a soft mode of strict. With a quick hand signal to respond, he quickly threw on a fake smile.

"Of course, sir. If you would please follow me, I will escort you myself on the lodging grounds."

Benjamin and the host moved towards a side lift nearly twenty meters across the way. Upon shutting the door behind them, the pair descended to floor seventy. The lift opened to reveal what seemed to be almost like a zoo, holding the many reluctant slaves on display for buyers to see what they liked and make a transaction towards. The cages were ray-shielded to keep the property from damage and escape.

Ben slowly proceeded, keeping an eye for anyone that might somehow look like the Doctor. He passed a couple of young blondes with blue eyes, but they seemed too controlled, almost like they had been in the system for a while. A couple of more exotic options included humanoid women with either blue or red skin with a black stripe pattern. Another was a green skinned lass with gills. Several more could be viewed that would were too ordinary, and didn't seem to have any fight with their place in this lineup. Not wanting to come off as desperate, Benjamin calmly waved the host over to him.

"Anything look satisfactory, sir?" Ben subtly shook his head.

"Do you have anything more, fresh in supply?" The host called a couple of thugs to him and at his bidding, the two lead Benjamin to another door. Behind it were three cells, one at the end with a young brunette looking downcast and broken. He peered with slight intrigue, hoping for answers.

"And what's special about this one?"

"This one is a 'interesting' case." The captor replied. "She seems to match the qualities of a Time Lord. Even did one of those 'regenerations' when she tried to escape. Seemed to learn her lesson fairly quick-like though."

Benjamin could only look on with feigned interest. Inside, he knew without a doubt this was the Doctor's daughter. The odd thing for him was that physically speaking, she seemed to remind him of his current Doctor, not the one he had first met. They had almost the same dark hair and even had a similar cockiness in their body language. This only made Ben nearly sick to his stomach thinking she had to spend any time at all in this hell hole. Without second thought, he pulled out his credit stick and turned to her captors.

"Bring her to my room. If respect is what she needs to be taught, then call me her teacher."

The tone that Ben used in hopes of sounding threatening to Jenny's captors seemed to work a little too well. The larger of the two thugs made a move towards their buyer.

"If you can afford her. Fifty thousand credits an hour. And no permanent damage-"

"You needn't worry about damaging the merchandise" Ben cut him off. "I'll meet your little payment, and you will bring her to me in ten minutes. The host has my room key." The guard gave a short bow and motioned to the other as Benjamin slowly made his way back to the main hall and the lift.

The host had been quiet for the majority of the trip back up. Upon reaching the desk, he handed Benjamin a key and gave him his room number. As Benjamin lumbered toward the lift, he tilted his head slightly to notice the host speak into a communicator. Figuring that the host had become suspicious, he knew time would potentially run low for their heist to work.

After acknowledging the security camera in the lift, Benjamin moved his right hand over his ear, looking as though to scratch it. In doing so, he tapped the secret earpiece Rose had given him three times. Hoping that the two would be listening, he prepped himself for arrival at his room.

Exiting the lift with nothing short of grace, Benjamin Westoff opened the door to his room shortly down the hall and scouted out his room. The loo seemed large enough to fit the TARDIS, but only after a sense of feeling the room around was he convinced this part would work. He removed the earpiece completely and tapped both sides at the same time as he uttered "Fly 'er in silent mode." Leaving the earpiece on the sink, he moved himself out into the main space awaiting his purchase.

The only thing that made his charade tough was how he secretly wished this was the real thing. In another time before his time with the Doctor, he most definitely would have made his time with Jenny a little more worth it for him. Past experiences would even suggest Jenny would not leave his room alive, Time Lord or not. Benjamin seemed to have two methods to his love making: simply either til his lust or rage was sated, sometimes with their life. He began to compose himself together while a particular incident back in the days with his squad threatened him.

On his first shore leave, Benjamin along with one of his other squad mates had spent time in an off-world brothel with a pair of sisters. After some squabbling involving attempted theft, Benjamin shot one of the sisters as the other killed his squad mate then herself to make it look Ben had killed all three of them. Ben had managed to get away from the situation before authorities could track him down and charge him. Another section of baggage for him to deal with in hindsight.

The Doctor really had helped him change so many things about himself, including the guilt from his dark past he harbored within himself, but the one disadvantage to traveling throughout time and space was the loneliness. Not necessarily a romantic interest was needed, but a man who lived his lifestyle then was suddenly pulled from it needed one night stands from time to time. Many times he and Eyebrows had come to disagreements about that simple fact of his biology, with one time even crashing the TARDIS in an attempt to pilot them towards some kind of brothel-like establishment. His urges inside were nearly killing him, but he managed to fight them off to remember the mission.

A knock at his door sprang him to attention while he hoisted himself off of a seat. He opened it to see Jenny and one of the thugs. He gestured for her to seat herself while he lightly pushed the guard to join him just outside. He knew he was gonna need a backup plan on the off chance that the Doctor would forget to fly in silent mode.

"I desire 'private time' with the girl. Name your price."

"You think you can buy me off from doing my job, off-worlder?" The two stared each other down as Ben snatched the credit stick from the guard's belt. Starting with five thousand, he handed it back. The guard's eyes nearly bulged out after realizing this customer wasn't bluffing. "No permanent damage?" Benjamin returned with an arrogant smile.

"That is no concern of yours. I will have my fun time and she will remain relatively undamaged. Come and collect her in a half hour. I will be done by then." The guard snorted.

"Suit yourself, freak." With no more words, he walked to the lift and Benjamin sighed upon the doors closing.

He calmly re-entered his room with Jenny's eyes fixated on him. He knew that she would be a combination of angry, sad, and confused. With this, he knew to proceed with care in the case she would kill him before he could even tell her what was going on. One peek in the loo made him glad more than anything to see a blue box. He pushed the TARDIS's doors open to see no one in the console room but a bag with Jenny's clothes in it and the Sonic Screwdriver. Knowing time was of the essence, he practically rushed back into the loo with Jenny's bag and the Doctor's trusty tool. He came back into the main room and tossed the bag towards her.

Jenny looked at the bag in confusion then took every piece of familiar clothing out and almost cried at the sight of her jacket. She focused her attention on Ben.

"I'm not the Doctor Jenny. But his ship is in the loo. Feel free to come in as soon as you're dressed." He set the Screwdriver to setting 489 and undid the mechanics of Jenny's handcuffs as she loosened herself out of them.

"How did he fit his ship in the loo?" she pondered to her rescuer. Ben smirked.

"You'll just have to see for yourself."

With that, he entered back into the TARDIS where the Doctor and Rose were now waiting for him. Judging by the worry on their faces, he simply smiled and a feeling of relief went about the console room.

A knock came from outside the main doors of the TARDIS. Anticipating what her response would be to this incarnation, the Time Lord snapped his fingers. One foot stepped inside followed by the other and Jenny was fully inside the ship. She paused on the railing with her mouth open wide in absolute shock. She noticed Rose first, calling her name while the blonde dashed to her and hugged her tight. The two had a nice moment that seemed to be interrupted by a sound that could only be described as beautiful glass being rubbed a light finger. Rose pondered what Jenny said, but a voice cut in.

"She said 'It's bigger on the inside.'" Jenny felt curious as to know who else on the ship spoke genuine Gallifreyan. With one look at the man from whom the voice originated, she hoped that process of elimination wouldn't let her down now.

"Dad?"

The Doctor only had to smile as a tear rolled down his cheek. Jenny barely even moved before she began to sob into her father's embrace. The moment that she had been hoping would come for the last eighteen years of her life had arrived. The two held each other for nearly two minutes as the Doctor kept saying he was really here.

Benjamin took the scene in and nearly cried himself as he kept feeling warm and bubbly by the father-daughter reunion. Still wanting to feel like he had some dignity, he excused himself quietly from the scene before him, wanting to give the family a little time to themselves. After leaving the console room, he moved to a room on the TARDIS where the Doctor would usually spend his time re-wiring important things (and get shocked in the process). As he set to work finding actually broken wires, he pulled out his portable welding flame and soldered a cable apart.

Putting it back together gave him time to think about the fact that he had actually made a good decision. Each time he pulled the broken cable and pin point the solder into the splinters to tie it all together, he reflected on how this would strengthen his relationship with not only the Doctor (and his ever-growing family) but with himself. It was almost like this was how the Doctor found him in the Alpha Centauri system. Broken, but not beyond repair and with some time and proper rebuilding, he would come back as twice the man he was before. His work was interrupted when he heard a set of footprints enter the room, causing him to stop.

"I guess this is the part where I come in and humbly say thanks for bringing my daughter to me safely. And within an hour." The two shared a quick chuckle over that. "But I wanted to say that I am acknowledging you willingly throwing yourself back into your own demons and risking temptation to save someone you've never even met before. And I respect that."

Benjamin, touched by his friend's praise, hoisted himself off the floor and offered his hand for the Time Lord to shake in thankful response. The Doctor pulled his companion to him and the two embraced with a new sense of mutual respect. When they broke, the Doctor gave him a salute as Benjamin finished the cable and left the room.

The end of the night found Benjamin Westoff sleeping one hundred percent peacefully for the first time in months, not knowing where the next day would take him and him finding solace in that.


	19. Chapter 19

_**A/N: Hello FanFiction, well the time has come. Time to meet our hero for the evening. Someone I have been spending months on trying to make as badass on all levels as possible.**_

_**Enough chit chat from me though, let's get to the good stuff.**_

_**Enjoy. **_

* * *

Chapter 19

When things got complicated, he used to anticipate and enjoy it.

The Doctor found himself accidentally drifting into sleep while he was with Rose. Nothing sexual had quite happened between the two, as neither felt they even could safely. In fairness to the couple, one of them hadn't received a lot of action in the last few years while the other had gone centuries without the touch of one that he loved. What seemed to make the difference this time around; there wasn't a need for physically making love. Yet the two laid in her bed, simply enjoying each other's company with nothing but happiness in their hearts at the prospect of raising Jenny, however that would work out.

Speaking of, the two with Benjamin spent nearly five hours listening to Jenny's stories. Occasionally, Ben would join in and recount exactly how he managed to rescue her or talk about some place that Jenny had come across where he and the Doctor had some tall tales of their own. Laughter and tears were common in the conversation, especially when Jenny brought up places that meant something to the Doctor. Roughly twelve years after leaving, she had eventually found herself on Messaline again. The Time Lord almost cringed at the mere thought, but slowly let his defenses down when his daughter reported that the inhabitants seemed to actually put effort into trying to create a new world and were no longer relying on the progenation machines. Not to mention the fact that the terraforming seemed to work on a level of covering nearly a fifth of the entire planet. All this and more made him more proud than ever to be her parent, yet all the more guilty for not waiting for her to come back around.

As he continued to rest in his Bad Wolf's arms, he could feel himself drift off to his dreams from before again. This time, however, the dream almost threatened to consume him with the reality.

He opened his eyes to reveal Cybermen walking all around what was clearly an operating room of some kind. Across the length of his body, there were Cybermites that seemed to be in place for possibly taking measurements. These little bugs normally meant for assimilation appeared to be repurposed as a method of transmitting data since all they did was blink signals toward the main computing system. A large data pad near him showed his vital signs, perfectly matching his Gallifreyan anatomy to the last blood vessel. This brought nothing short of a dozen questions for the Doctor.

_Since when do Cybermen have that level of access to Time Lord physiology? What is the purpose of this kind of hooking up if I'm stuck in a dream? Why am I feeling nothing when I'm clearly awake yet more than aware of what is going on in the dream?_ Slowly, the reality that maybe this wasn't a dream and he was seeing something in real time through someone else's eyes became more of a possibility.

_Okay, who am I seeing in here?_ He began peering his eyes to any hints that could tip him off as far as who was the unfortunate soul stuck in this situation. The chance of it being someone he knew was likely, possibly being either Missy if she was trapped, but those weren't her hips. Maybe it was Brax, but if it was then he regenerated into a really young man, almost as young as this regeneration of himself. Possibly it was Susan, if she pulled a gender swap from a regeneration, but that seemed even more brought his attention to the hands and noticed the fingers looked very much like his own. Any hopes he had of not actually being in the dream/vision/whatever it was he was seeing were dashed as the feeling this was him began to sink in. He scoffed to himself.

_Is that the reason for the restraints? In the off chance I can be- _The Doctor cut off his train of thought to possibly consider what sounded like the impossible. At the mere idea of a revelation, he began to feel movement. He was fighting his restraints and beginning to make soft noises that progressively became more Cybermen began coming closer to his body as the noises ceased and the movement began to lessen. In the background, he could overhear that now sickening computerized voice.

"Consciousness at ninety eight percent. Memory download at fifty nine percent."

Inside the Doctor's mind, chaos began to erupt as everything he was afraid of began to come true. Somehow the Cybermen had to have cloned him, and he was connected psychically to the creation. There was no way to properly explain it yet, no matter how much he thought about it. The only thing he could feel was himself loosening the right arm restraint.

As one of the Cybermen approached closely carrying a syringe, he unknowingly snapped into reality, grasping his captor's arm almost statue-like, ripping a piece of armor off of the Cyberman's left arm, jabbing it into its neck multiple times. As the Cyberman collapsed shutting down, the "not Doctor" loosened his other bindings and fell onto the floor in an attempt to stand. Crawling to the downed clanker he had killed, he pulled its rifle out of its right arm, jury rigged a trigger system, and shot down another two attempting to stop him in twenty seconds. Making two more attempts to stand, the Doctor could observe this surrogate him was limping and in pain but couldn't actually feel said pain. As his other left the operating room, he pulled the trigger toward the computer that had haunted every dream with updates on his progress.

The Doctor was horrified by what was happening around him. This "him" was thinking only in terms of survival and destruction, not too unlike a Dalek or the Cybermen that he despised so much. He himself had been decently savage during the Last Great Time War, but even then he was not this brutal. Normally, he would have killed his opposition then and simply moved on. This other was seeming more like what the Doctor would be if he were to let all of his negative emotions completely dictate his life. Much like he imagined John would have been had he stuck around, or like...

Before he could truly put two and two together, he was busy watching the carnage as it occurred. Two full Cybermen squads fell to his other's raw anger and wit. Not only was his other full of power that needed to be satisfied, but he had the intelligence to kill his opponents delicately and quietly. He observed his other finding a control terminal and using a couple of antennas from dead Cybermen to hack open the controls. He clawed out several groups of wires, splitting them apart to the individual piece in record time. Hacking the controls to the warp speed he combined the accelerator with the navigation computer, then stood himself up and typed coordinates in.

When his other had finished his input of destination, he shot the terminal and proceeded towards finding a vehicle to fly out of the hangar. En route, more Cybermen spotted him and began open firing. The Doctor would have attempted to hide and maybe consider surrender, but this entity would have none of it. Shooting two of his opponents, he rolled over to one end of a hallway, taking cover behind a double pillar. Making every shot count unnecessarily, his aim proved impressive even by the Doctor's standards. Three clankers were left standing when he charged out from the pillar and completely wiped them with one shot per guard.

Without the slightest hesitation, the other form moved through a couple of hallways into a hangar environment. Inside of it were ships capable of space travel that could be released from the main ship, even inside of warp speed. The only complication reared its ugly head in the form of two dozen guards on patrol in the hangar a floor below. Nothing else seemed like it was in the way of escape. That was until one of the Cybermen turned its rifle towards his position and sent a wave of blasts. Several more joined, their barrages making it nearly impossible for the Doctor's other form to fire back. He bolted to an open door, spinning around and sniping the original to shoot it down before making a hesitant retreat.

Considering all of his options, the other form slipped into a lift shaft and cautiously proceeded downward to put himself on the same level as the main group in the hangar. Opening the doors with care took time, but time that gave him opportunity to create the element of surprise. One of the clankers was standing guard in front of the doorway to the hangar. To overcome this issue, the other form simply grabbed it and pulled it down, blasting its head to pieces mid-process.

More footsteps tipped him off that he needed to keep moving. Stealthily entering a large ship, it encountered a pair of Cybermen making an attempt at stopping him from escaping. The Doctor's other shot one dead instantly, then disarmed the other. The Cyberman froze.

"You are created from the Doctor. You will show mercy."

The voice that finally came out of his other form was very similar to his own, but much more intimidating.

"I am not him." And fired a blast that finished the other one off. Sitting in the cockpit and igniting the engines, the ship itself began to levitate until the warp speed pulled out to reveal a planet that the ship was going to crash into. He punched it to speed out of the hangar mere moments before fire would engulf the entirety of the main Cyber Hub. He looked back once to see that his plan had worked. The Cybership had destroyed the majority of the Syndicate base on Deltara Metraxis, sending thousands of innocent slave girls as well as their captives to their deaths, whether via explosion or sucked into space. This was all only to get out. He didn't need to kill innocent people who weren't even in the way. This man, however, was not the Doctor.

The whole time following, he thought of nothing. No hints of remorse, no attempt at justifying his actions. There wasn't even a conversation that the two could try and spark up using some weird connection that they both seemed to share. Only four words were spoken.

"I will find you."

The Doctor panicked back into reality. Startling Rose almost instantaneously, the TARDIS turned all of her bedroom lights on as she began trying to help the Time Lord to calm down from whatever was stressing him out. His breathing was erratic and stuttering, clearly showing him in a full blown anxiety attack. His eyes almost seemed to roll in the back of his head as he forced himself to sit up and face away from her. Maybe in another time, she would have known to leave well enough alone and let him figure this one out on his own. That was not the case with what she just witnessed. This was the proof that she needed to know confirm that he asked her to come back because he really needed someone like her who could stop him from going too far or just listen to when he was stressed out about something. Braving up the words, she caressed his cheek tenderly.

"What kind of dream was it this time?"

With only a turn of his head, his eyes spoke volumes about the travesty he had just witnessed. Not just for the thousands lost, or for the mere fact of his existence, but mostly for the level of danger that his companions were now in. Rose had seen danger in her time. Ben was no stranger to the frequent peril time traveling seemed to give. Jenny also seemed to know her way around most life-threatening situations. Any and all previous experience were nothing compared to the now might as well be death mark attached to all three of them. With a heavy heart and a frightened tone he coldly replied,

"Something far worse."


End file.
